S LUTE November | 2020
VETERANS DAY 2020
EAGLE’S HEALING NEST
HELPS VETERANS SUFFERING FROM THE INVISIBLE WOUNDS OF WAR
JOHN WARREN IS BASTION OF HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS
REACHING OUT
A publication of the Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal
ALL ARE WELCOME AT CLC VETERANS RESOURCE CENTER
SERVING THOSE WHO SERVED OUR COUNTRY We at LAHFH are honored to serve 3 Veterans and their families who have chosen to partner with us to build their homes:
COMPLETED 2019 2019!
Josh and Breanna Martin family Josh was a Systems Analyst in the United States Air Force
COMPLETED 2019 2019!
Dennis Peterson family Dennis was a Combat Medic in the United States National Guard
COMPLETED 2020 2020!
Jeremy and Breanna Engholm Family Jeremy was a 19K in the United States Army
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LAHFH would like to send out a huge THANK YOU to all of our Veterans and their families who have served this country. We appreciate your service and sacrifice to protect our country and our communities.
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE OUR HEROES!
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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S LUTE CONTACT US: Advertising@BrainerdDispatch.com (218) 855-5895 ATTN: Salute Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 974, Brainerd, MN 56401 Veterans Day Salute is an annual publication of the Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal. Copyright© 2013 VOLUME 8, FALL 2020
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
CONTENTS ‘20 On the cover:
S LUTE November | 2020
The All Veterans Memorial, located on Fourth and Laurel streets in Brainerd between the U.S. Post Office and the Crow Wing County Courthouse, was revised and then dedicated on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2017.
VETERANS DAY 2020
Photo by Steve Kohls
JOHN WARREN IS A BASTION OF HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS • 5
EAGLE’S HEALING NEST
HELPS VETERANS SUFFERING FROM THE INVISIBLE WOUNDS OF WAR
JOHN WARREN IS BASTION OF HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS
REACHING OUT ALL ARE WELCOME AT CLC VETERANS RESOURCE CENTER
A publication of the Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal
By Travis Grimler, Echo Journal
Vietnam vet John Warren, of Pine River, seems to have been born to wear a uniform, born to be a wealth of knowledge for African American military history and born to help others.
Features
EAGLE’S HEALING NEST HELPS SUFFERING VETERANS • 10 By Jennifer Kraus, Brainerd Dispatch
Melony Butler has been on a mission for many years, advocating and helping veterans. She and her husband Master Sgt. Blaine Butler started Eagle’s Healing Nest in 2012.
FLIGHT OF RESTORED B-17 BOMBER HARKS BACK TO DAYS WHEN SKIES WERE NOT SO BLUE • 40 By Fredrick Kunkle, The Washington Post
REACHING OUT: ALL ARE WELCOME AT CLC VETERANS RESOURCE CENTER • 30 By Theresa Bourke, Brainerd Dispatch
Theresa Harsha is the veterans resource center coordinator at Central Lakes College. Harsha uses her military experience and her masters degree in education to support student veterans and their families and help them navigate the college world.
Also in this issue
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Local photo submissions of Brainerd lakes area veterans — past and present.
John Warren, of Pine River, a former Buffalo Soldier re-enactor, has been in uniforms his whole life. Travis Grimler / Echo Journal
Vietnam vet is bastion of history of African American service members By Travis Grimler Echo Journal
T
here are certain things you are born into and certain things that develop over time. John Warren, of Pine River, seems to have been born to wear a uniform, born to be a wealth of knowledge for African American military history and born to help others.
Warren grew up in the Rondo Neighborhood in St. Paul, a diverse community with mixed families not too different from his own. One neighborhood couple was
Cuban. Another was African American and German. Yet another was Ojibwe. Warren’s father was African American and Seminole Indian while his mother was
French Canadian. They found themselves in the community partially because it was both diverse and active, but also at least in part because it was safer than other places.
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continued FROM page 5 “In 1945, when my parents got married, there were 13 states where my dad could have been hanged for marrying my mom,” Warren said. At home in his neighborhood, Warren said his parents were able to shield, or protect, him and his two siblings from hate or racism until they were older. They encountered it when they left home, however. Knowing what he knows now, Warren realizes there were times when he and his family were treated as unwelcome at resorts or communities when they traveled for vacation. “My family - my dad and mom - they protected us kids until we got older and started venturing out on our own,” Warren said. When his parents helped them understand the challenges they might face as they grew older, Warren said they began to be exposed more and more to the inequalities of the world. At least one time, it was while his school’s hockey team competed against a team from another, apparently less diverse community and
“In 1945, when my parents got married, there were 13 states where my dad could have been hanged for marrying my mom.” - John Warren was suddenly insulted for their race. “The coach would say, ‘Now, they’re going to be calling you names.’ Preparing us, because the first thing we knew they would use the N-word and all that kind of stuff and we’d be ready to fight,” Warren
said. “They didn’t know any better and we didn’t know any better. It was a learning experience you get used to.” Though living with such adversity wasn’t good or easy, Warren was fortunate in one way. He was surrounded by people who fought adversity before him and became historical figures and legends for what they achieved. His life has been filled with inspiration from the Tuskegee Airmen and their children, like Irvin O. Brewin Jr., the African American Navy divers of World War II and even his grandfather, who was born in Arkansas in 1863 as a slave just two years before he was officially freed. Even today, these historical figures are less well-known than they should be, but Warren had the fortune of meeting many of them, becoming friends with their children and occasionally hearing about their experiences. “A lot of them didn’t tell us some of the stories as kids,” Warren said. “We learned them later because we overheard uncles and dads within earshot and listening to some of these things and some of the
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atrocities that were happening.” There is no doubt this upbringing shaped who he is today. He could have gone one of many different directions with his life, but from the start he was not only surrounded by military legends, he was raised by a veteran in a family with a history of service that encouraged him and his siblings to be active in their community at a young age. “My mom and dad, uncles, aunts, all our cousins and all us kids had to do things on a regular basis,” Warren said. “Not only with different churches, but the Hallie Q. Brown (Community) Center, the Martin Luther King Center, the Old Boys Club, Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul. They were ingrained in their community. Warren said it seems he’s been wearing uniforms all his life. It may have started with Boy Scouts, but it went on from there. “It seems like I was destined in my life to always wear uniforms,” Warren said. “I was in the Boy Scouts up through high
It’s probably not a surprise that Warren wound up in the Marine Corps. He was just the next member of the family to serve his country, and not the last. school. It was a uniform in Boy Scouts, a uniform in school. Then from there the Marine Corps uniform. I get out of the Marine Corps and then there is the Buffalo Soldiers, the Color Guard for the VFW in Jenkins and the Marine Corps League in Park Rapids.” It’s probably not a surprise that Warren wound up in the Marine Corps. He was just the next member of the family to serve his country, and not the last. “I had uncles and a grandpa who were World War I veterans,” Warren said. “My dad’s a World War II veteran. My uncle’s
World War II, a couple cousins were in Korea and World War II. I was raised by these older gentlemen. Those are the kind of people I grew up with. There were four Tuskegee Airmen.” He served in Vietnam and experienced the horrors of that war for longer than he can remember. “People always ask, ‘How long were you in the Marine Corps?’” Warren said. “All day. Enough to get some rank, to do some tours and travel a lot.” During active duty, Warren was wounded. He was shot in the arm and leg. He
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continued FROM page 7 spent many days recovering from his injuries and today his right hand is still contorted from the injury. “I spent over 22 and a half months in military hospitals,” Warren said. He wasn’t done serving others or wearing uniforms when he left. Just as he had been raised, he got involved, this time in helping his fellow service members though his position and duties shifted over the years. “I worked in a disabled veterans outreach program with the state,” Warren said. “I worked with the Job Center in Minneapolis downtown. Then I ended up working in the latter part of the ‘70s with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at Fort Snelling in the regional office there. That’s where I retired from in March of 2007.” In the 1980s, Warren donned yet another uniform for about five years, that of a lesser known regiment in military history - the Buffalo Soldiers, a segregated group of all African American soldiers that simultaneously fought for the United States while enduring mistreatment and disdain from the military it served from 1867-1891, being vital parts of many historic battles in their time. This was the regiment memorialized by the 1989 film “Glory.” Warren was part of a group of Buffalo Soldier reenactors. He and his fellow reenactors rode horses, uniformed after their historical counter-
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parts, in parades throughout the state and elsewhere. “We’d go to schools and stuff when we were invited,” Warren said. “And we would talk about the history of the Buffalo Soldiers. I still have the uniform and riding boots.” Warren said his family first told him about the Buffalo Soldiers, a part of both African American and U.S. military history that often gets left out of lessons. His parents supported him having a good education, but encouraged him to delve deeper where history books might have glossed over important details, especially in relation to race. “My old man used to push that,” Warren said. Perhaps that is one reason Warren is now a veritable fount of historical knowledge often skimmed over in history books. Just one short conversation with Warren is enough to expose a person to dozens of historical names and events that most people don’t know. After retiring in 2007, Warren moved to Pine River, his wife’s hometown, and he
brought all that history with him. At first, Warren took some time off from dealing with fellow service members. A long career had worn him out. “I came into town just to get gas, or we’d go to town and pick up food for the month,” Warren said. “I’d go out on the boat fishing or get on my Polaris or cut the grass or cut some trees down. Then I got to meeting people.” After about a year, he found himself once again donning uniforms and volunteering with various service related groups — the Pine River American Legion, Jenkins VFW, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Hearts, the Marine Corps League in Park Rapids, the 1/9 Network (1st Battalion 9th Marines Network) and a Cass County advisory group. Looking back, Warren jokes that he left a job getting paid to help other veterans to volunteer to help veterans for free. When he first got involved, he was happy to see familiar faces at the local Legion club, people he had helped during
his long career. That helped him transition back into the community where he was somewhat of a stranger. He became a member of the Pine River American Legion, moving his membership from the Attucks Brooks Post 606 American Legion in St. Paul. For several years he served as gambling manager there. Today, he serves in the same capacity at the Jenkins VFW where he is a former commander.
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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Eagle’s Healing Nest helps veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war
I
f it wasn’t for the Eagle’s Healing Nest, some veterans say they wouldn’t have survived this thing called life.
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By Jennifer Kraus | Brainerd Dispatch “I attempted suicide three times,” one veteran said wanting to be identified only as Jeremy. “The VA (Veterans Administration) denied me and two months ago I was referred here by the St. Cloud State University’s Veterans Resource Center’s director.” Here, meaning Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre, a nonprofit organization committed to meeting the needs of veterans, service members and their families who suffer from the invisible wounds of
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
war. Melony Butler and her husband Master Sgt. Blaine Butler started Eagle’s Healing Nest in June 2012. The couple reside in Staples with their son Preston, who is a senior at Staples-Motley High School. Melony Butler has three adult sons — Cody, Mitchell and Michael — who all served in the Minnesota National Guard. Her family has gone through four deployments during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Butler
1. Jeremy has been at Eagle’s Healing Nest for a couple of months. Prior to that he was living in the St. Cloud area, attending college, when “just everything with the military,” got to him and he had a mental health breakdown. Submitted photo
has been on a mission for many years, advocating and helping veterans. She was a Family Readiness leader for 14 years, volunteers every year at the Great Falls, Montana, Vets 4 Vets Stand Down. She also speaks about supporting soldiers and families throughout the communities. Melony Butler said one of her sons was suicidal when he came back from a deployment in 2010 and the VA turned him away. She said it took a general and his parents to help him. “I knew that something had to change,” Melony Butler said on helping veterans. “In speaking with my stepfather, who was a Vietnam War vet, and talking him down from suicide — all they ever said was they just need each other. “The general who helped him get into the VA said don’t come with a problem, come with a solution. So I enrolled in school and after two years, we were losing too many to suicide ... addiction, so I started to look for a place to start. I was looking for a little house in Staples to house 10 to 12 and God had something else in store and here we are.” Eagle’s Healing Nest consists of 24 houses on 124 acres, with six houses that are renovated and occupied. A house can host between 14-25 veterans at a time and another house is expected to be completed by Nov. 1. The organization is run by all volunteers. “We don’t have any big corporate sponsors; we don’t have any federal funds; we don’t have any of those things,” Melony Butler said, but later mentioned Minnesota-based My Pillow is a big sponsor. “We just created our own place built on love.” Eagle’s Healing Nest provides housing and the veterans and the volunteers provide the resources. Melony Butler said
2. Michael Neumiller and Devin Wakefield with their son who 14-month-old at the time of the Sept. 25 interview. The family is staying at the Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre. Neumiller was deployed in 2005 and was in Iraq for two years
and he struggles with posttramautic stress disorder. Submitted photo 3. Staples resident Melony Butler started the Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Center, where promises made are promises kept. Submitted photo
they understand the veterans also need help from doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists and others and the organization partners with groups for these services. They also work with Angel Reins Stables
“We don’t turn them away whether they can pay or not, because, unfortunately, it takes veterans a long time to get service connected and to be properly diagnosed. We help them through that whole process.” - Melony Butler
in St. Augusta, Minnesota, which focuses on healing with the love of horses and Project Delta of Minnesota, which focuses on healing with the love of dogs.
“Project Delta just placed their dog here with a veteran so they are training their own service dog or training the dog for others, so that helps eliminate cost and the veterans truly are just creating their own place to heal with honor,” Melony Butler said. “Just as in the military, we consider ourselves a military family. When we go in, we all serve the parents, the spouses and children and so, essentially, that’s how the nest was created and with a really strong community support. They all get suicide intervention and prevention training, Mental Health First Aid, accelerated resolution therapy (a form of posttramautic stress disorder). Based on my experience and those who have taken (the PTSD therapy) they don’t have to relive the trauma. So it’s a pretty powerful therapy.” Melony Butler said veterans who live at Eagle’s Healing Nest help make meals, renovate projects and maintain the grounds. They also maintain a large garden, the barns and all the animals on the property, including fish, cats, chickens, ducks and peacocks. On the property, they also have a welding shop, a wood shop, an art studio and a gem studio. Eagle’s Healing Nest is substance free. “We make sure they are substance free, they have to be, to be ready to heal,” Melony Butler said. “We don’t care how long it takes them to do that. We don’t turn them away whether they can pay or not, because, unfortunately, it takes veterans a long time to get service connected and to be properly diagnosed. We help them through that whole process.” The nonprofit organization has volunteers from several organizations who support its cause, including the Legion Riders, Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, auxiliary members, veteran organizations,
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continued FROM page 11 such as the Wounded Warriors Minnesota. “We work side by side with the veterans who have tons of skills, but they struggle with the fact that people in the clinical model tell them what they must do (to be better),” Melony Butler said. “And they don’t feel that they have a voice and really they just need a safe place to pull it all back together and be able to have strong advocates for them. And so we just network this whole group of people, to love them through that and support them through that, and help them achieve their goals and their dreams.”
Jeremy’s story
One of the signs at the Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre, a nonprofit organization committed to meeting the needs of veterans, service members and their families who suffer from the invisible wounds of war. Submitted photo
Jeremy has been at Eagle’s Healing Nest for a couple of months. Prior to that he was living in the St. Cloud area, attending college, when “just everything with the military” got to him and he had a mental health breakdown. Jeremy also was being treated in an acute psychiatric hospital, but that treatment was short term and he needed more longer term care. Jeremy didn’t feel comfortable talking about any details of his experience
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
while in the Army. “Eagle’s Healing Nest is a healing and treatment board and lodge for veterans and it is more than three hots and a cot,” Jeremy said. “That is a pretty common thing to say in the military, three hots and a cot. Basically it’s not like that here, you just don’t come here to eat three meals a day and go to sleep. We are required to be active after 8:30 every morning. We have morning meditation meetings in the house I live in with about 10 guys.” Jeremy participates in programming that is run by the residents at the house and also has outside professional care teams who help him with his mental health illnesses, such as meeting with a psychologist, a psychiatrist and his primary care physician. He also works with counselors on suicide prevention and intervention. Outside of the counseling treatment, Jeremy said residents are not allowed to be in isolation, which can be a challenge for some. “I used to isolate myself for about a year,” he said. “Following the issues with
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“Yeah, I was kind of fighting it for the first month. It just seemed too good to be true that someone would help me and my family.” - Michael Neumiller what happened with the military. And I just kind of fell to the wayside just staying in my bedroom or I slept a lot in my living room with my roommate when I lived on campus at the university. So coming here one thing that I really focus on is a lot of social interactions. I probably have on average about 10 hours of social interactions throughout the week ... just hanging out, watching movies and stuff.”
Michael Neumiller and Devin Wakefield
It’s been a long road, but staying at the Eagle’s Healing Nest with their 14-month-
old son has been healing for Neumiller and Wakefield, who plan to get married on the property in December. Neumiller was deployed in 2005 and was in Iraq for two years. “I came home and I pretty much struggled with PTSD,” Neumiller said. “I didn’t know what it was at the time. But apparently, I don’t know, but I ended up in prison four different times. I haven’t been able to really get any help or treatment or anything because I get out and I’d go right back in, and I guess I ended up meeting Devin back in 2015. And we became friends then and basically stayed in touch,
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“I came home and I pretty much struggled with PTSD. I didn’t know what it was at the time.” - Michael Neumiller
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
The auditorium at the Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre is adorned with numerous American flags. Submitted photo.
continued FROM page 13 until December of 2017 and that’s when we started dating. We moved to Menahga in 2018 and we still have a house there now. We’re actually going home this weekend, but we’re probably going to be here at the Nest for a while.” Neumiller first came to Eagle’s Healing Nest on his own because he needed to focus on himself, but after about a month Butler realized it was “better for him to have his family and it was better for his family to have Michael,” Wakefield said. “Melony made room available for our son and myself and it’s just been, it’s easier for Michael to focus on his recovery and all of that and for us to heal as a family.” Neumiller said he had been seeing someone at the VA as an outpatient to deal with his PTSD. He said he was taking some medication and when the coronavirus came, there was a mistake on his medications as he had multiple doctors on his case — and he got a medication that was not his. “He (the doctor) wanted me off some of my other medications in order
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Dear Veterans, We salute you and honor all who have served our country. We pause to remember and give thanks.
Thank you. S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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continued FROM page 15 for me to be able to dream and stuff,” Neumiller said. “And I just got extremely hyper vigilant and paranoid and I actually had like a PTSD-related blackout. I don’t really remember multiple days of time. And, yeah, I actually ended up getting some criminal charges and ... in my experience I automatically usually would have just given up, but I didn’t and it’s because of Devin.” Neumiller struggled for years with his medications, but since he started living at the Nest he has one doctor who takes care of it. He also is doing his counseling and therapy with a counselor from Cook Counseling Services in St. Cloud, who comes to the Eagle’s Healing Nest to help him. Wakefield said it was a rocky road to start with the healing process, as they did not trust the government system and “he was so used to being thrown away by. It took him a long time to realize that this isn’t the same system and once he was able to trust it it’s been a lot better. Since that’s happened he’s had that revelation ... and we’ve been able to just be a family again.” “Yeah, I was kind of fighting it for
An American flag hangs around a cross at the Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre. Submitted photo
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
“You have to trust, you have to give a little bit of trust in order to see if it’s worth it or not worth it.” - Michael Neumiller
the first month,” Neumiller said. “It just seemed too good to be true that someone would help me and my family. “Ever since I got home I jumped into drinking right away and my family noticed. My uncle, who was in the Navy for 17 years was trying to get me, you know, to go to the VA and I didn’t trust the government at all because I was extended in Iraq twice. I had to find out over the TV over there, while I was eating breakfast that I was going to be there for another six months. It was rocky. I trusted nobody and I was afraid it was starting to affect Devin ... I think Melony calls it exposure therapy.” Neumiller, who has many struggles, is getting the help he needs. He said the Eagle’s Healing Nest is helping him learn how to handle things in a safe setting and helping him learn how to prepare for the world. “You have to trust, you have to give a little bit of trust in order to see if it’s worth it or not worth it,” Neumiller said. “We actually went out yesterday. The counselor here took us out to a public restaurant
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continued FROM page 17 to see how we would do. We struggled. He wouldn’t let me pick the table in the corner. We got to sit next to the corner, but ... you know, things were going on all around me and it was a chance for me to see if I was able to do it. It was good for us because we don’t go out to eat because of me. It’s not good for my family to have to tweak their life and focus just on me. It’s unfair to everybody.” Neumiller said he started his own group at the Eagle’s Healing Nest for veterans who have mental health and addiction struggles who had been incarcerated. He said there are not a lot of resources/ programs out there for people like himself. “‘I’ve been fighting for so long that I have forgotten how to live,” Neumiller said. “All I know how to do is fight, and I mean it is good to fight, but some battles aren’t worth fighting.” Neumiller met a veteran from Texas who experienced a lot of the same things he did, who has been helpful in his recovery. Neumiller’s advice to veterans who are struggling is: “Don’t stop asking questions and don’t give up on trying to find help. As hard as it is to find help there is help out there. “It’s hard to accept help when it is offered. You know you feel like ... you don’t want people to be disappointed in you. 18
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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- Michael Neumiller You don’t want people to see that you’re weak or that you can’t take care of yourself or anything like that. “A lot of people, like me ... I have survivor’s guilt. Almost my whole squad was either physically wounded or killed in action over in Iraq. I have been ashamed to talk to all of them, except one, since I’ve been home and him and I would use drugs together. I had been trying to get him help for a long time, but he got discouraged ... and he gave up and you can’t do that. That’s what I did and ended up in prison for nine years of my life. “For a lot of veterans, they are not home mentally. They are still there. They’re still at war in their mind, even though they are home. That is one of the biggest, biggest things that needs to be focused on is
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“For a lot of veterans, they are not home mentally. They are still there. They’re still at war in their mind, even though they are home.”
the hands cradling the nest represents the many that will wrap their support around and give services to the veterans and military members to help reintegrate them back to their families and into their communities. The organization’s vision and hope is to never have those who served in the U.S. military to live in darkness, but to bring them into the light to soar and fly free, to help restore the honor, dignity, pride and purpose each deserves.
them being able to come home from the mental war.” Neumiller said Butler doesn’t allow veterans to have excuses to give up on life. She will find a way to help anyone and fight for them. Neumiller said finding employment also is tough for him because of his criminal record. He said veterans will be in a treatment program when they get out of the service and have a hard time finding a job. “If they can’t find one right away they get discouraged and then the depression and anxiety begin which can contribute to substance abuse,” Neumiller said. “The sad part is a lot of places won’t hire people who just came home or have PTSD because they’re ‘unpredictable.’”
Behind the nonprofit
Butler heard about the property in Sauk Centre that could be an option for the Eagle’s Healing Nest site. Butler said when she left her home in Staples to go to Sauk Centre eagles flew alongside her the entire way there. Then the first weekend they began renovating the building, a pair of eagles built a nest on the property. Thus the name was born. According to the Eagle’s Healing Nest website — the eagle represents the past, present and future military strength, independence, pride and honor; the nest is full of meaning such as home, family, brotherhood, safety and security and 20
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
218-855-5851 jennifer.kraus@brainerddispatch.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl
DEERWOOD AMERICAN LEGION POST 557 23659 FOREST RD •218-534-3215 OPEN MON-FRI 2PM AND SAT 10AM WITH BLOODY MARY BAR
- Michael Neumiller continued FROM page 19
JENNIFER KRAUS
Wi-Fi, Pull Tabs, Drinks, Snacks Available!
Thank You For Your Service!
1ST THURS OF THE MONTH
PIZZA NIGHT MADE TO ORDER 4-7 PM
FRIDAY NIGHT MEALS (except following pizza night)
Available 4-7 pm Dinners include full salad bar & dessert
CALL FOR CURBSIDE PICK-UP AT (218) 534-3215. CREDIT CARD PREFERRED BUT CASH/CHECK ALWAYS ACCEPTED.
COVID-19 COMPLIANCE WILL BE OBSERVED.
We Salute You! ASSISTED LIVING MEMORY CARE ADULT DAY SERVICE
Located in the heart of downtown Nisswa www.hcseniorliving.com call 218-203-9820 to schedule a tour Forever young. Forever fun.
DANNY PRICE MARINES 1973-1977
JASON PRICE MARINES & ARMY GUARDS 1997-2003, 2003-2005
SEAN STAFFORD NATIONAL GUARD 1997-2017
NORMAN LOVEN ARMY 1945-1946
BRANDON STAFFORD NATIONAL GUARD 2009-PRESENT
JIM STAFFORD NAVY 1984-1988
MERYL ALTERS ARMY 1950-1953; KOREAN WAR 6/15/1997
ROD WILCOX AIR FORCE 1964
ROBERT G. HURST 1951-1954; KOREAN WAR
DONALD W. GATES NAVY 1948-1952; KOREAN WAR 9/9/2000
“So Long As There Are Veterans, The Benovolent And Protective Order Of Elks Will Never Forget Them”
Community Interests: Donate to Wreaths for the Fallen
Disabled Veterans Turkey Hunt and the Disabled Veterans Deer Hunt at Camp Ripley Educational Resources for Community Based Outpatient Clinic Veterans
Offer a free week of camp to 9-13 year old children of deployed soldiers at the MN Elks Youth Camp during Troops Week Every other month a visit to St. Cloud Veteran’s Hospital to play BINGO
Become a Member! Learn How, Visit www.brainerdelks.org www.brainerdelks.org
Brainerd Elks #615 215 S. 9th Street, Brainerd 829-2643 after 3pm S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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DON RASMUSSEN ARMY 1966-1969
JOSEPH NELSON NATIONAL GUARD 2020-PRESENT
CAILEE JENSEN AIR FORCE 2017-PRESENT
WILBERT GILDART ARMY 1972-1973
JOHN FRANZEN MARINES 1985-1989
TIM JOHNSON AIR FORCE 1982-1986 6/16/2012
EARL JOHNSON AIR FORCE 1954-1958
WILLIAM SKEESICK ARMY WORLD WAR II 37589
JIM JAYCOX ARMY 1965-1968
JULIUS ST JOHN KNUDSEN ARMY WWII - MIA FROM BATAAN DEATH MARCH
BRUCE LAPKA NAVY 1968 - 1972; VIETNAM
JEFFREY A. MCCARTHY ARMY 1973-1976
GILBERT L. LOWE ARMY AIR CORPS WWII 12/25/1983
MICHAEL LOWE AIR FORCE 1970-1974; VIETNAM
LAVERN “SKIP” LOWE ARMY 1965-1986; VIETNAM
DANIEL L LOWE SR. ARMY 1970-2008; VIETNAM & AFGHANISTAN 9/1/2019
BILL WEIK ARMY 1969-1970; VIETNAM
KEN MICKO AIR CORP 1942-1945
DUANE BLANCK MARINE CORPS 1960-1963
HOWARD “JIGGS” BLANCK ARMY 1956-1958
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GERALD KIEHLBAUCH ARMY 1953-1955 DECEASED
KEVIN KIEHLBAUCH ARMY 1976-1982
PRESTON CARLSON ARMY 2018-PRESENT
RAY LEETCH NATIONAL GUARD 1963-1969
JAMES SIPPER MARINES 2011-2014; IRAQ
MERLE MONSON ARMY 1942-1945
OLE MONSON NAVY 1944-1945
BEN MONSON ARMY 1942-1945
CARL MONSON ARMY 1943-1946, 1948-1952
DALE MONSON NAVY 1944-1945; WWII
GERALD J. DOYLE AIR FORCE 1958-1962
GLEN WATSON NAVY 1952-1954 DECEASED 2016
DERALD E. WATSON AIR FORCE / NAVY 1946-1950 / 1947-1950
RAY SCHUSTER ARMY WWII
ART SCHUSTER ARMY WWII
Thank you for your service! 218-829-4112
We Support The Veterans! Fraternal Order of Eagles, Brainerd Aerie 287 (218) 829-4216 | 124 Front Street, Brainerd www.brainerdeagles.com
A Salute to Our Military
Supplying Quality Landscape and Masonry Products Since 1909 702 Industrial Park Rd, Brainerd
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BACKUS AMERICAN LEGION “Where Good Folks Go for a Good Time”
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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BILL SCHUSTER MARINES WWII
KENNETH SCHUSTER ARMY WWII
HERBERT ZANKE ARMED FORCES 1950-1956 DECEASED 1979
ALEX EBERTOWSKI AIR FORCE WORLD WAR II 01/02/2017
RICHARD BRUCE BEESON SR. ARMY AIR CORPS 1943-1945 3/8/2005
SCOTT PECK ARMY 1994-2016; PURPLE HEART
GARRY PECK ARMY 1965-1968 9/10/2020
TIMOTHY J. MILO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD 2000 - PRESENT
ARNOLD J. DERKSEN ARMY WWI DECEASED 1965
BARRY MUDFORD ARMY 1966-1968; VIETNAM
We want to Thank Our Veterans
HAPPY HOUR - NIGHTLY SPECIALS PULL TABS AVAILABLE
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Be en Krueger Post 49, Auxiliary & SAL
4435 Main Street, Pequot Lakes • 218-568-9881 24
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
DENNIS G. HAVEL ARMY 1967-1968; VIETNAM
EUGENE MUNSON NAVY WWII DECEASED
GUNNARD FREDEN NAVY WWII DECEASED
JACKSON KNAPP MARINES 2016 - PRESENT
JEFF KNAPP MARINES 2008-2012; AFGANISTAN
JOELLE KNAPP MARINES 2018-PRESENT
JOHN E MUNSON ARMY WWI DECEASED
MILTON MUNSON NAVY 1942-1945; WWII 6/1/1977
OSCAR MARSCH ARMY WWI DECEASED
MORT ALLEN NAVY WWII DECEASED
RICHARD PAUL KLEIN NAVY 1948-1952; KOREN WAR
LEONARD W. BADE NAVY 1944-1946; WWII DECEASED
BRIAN BADE NAVY 1969-1973
RON WOODS ARMY 1958-1961; SE ASIA
CHRISTOPHER KRAUS NAVY & ARMY 1992-PRESENT
RICHARD L. KRAUS ARMY 1969-1990
RAYMOND J. GEISLINGER ARMY WWII 5/30/2012
CLARENCE L. KRAUS ARMY WWII 5/5/1996
EUGENE R. WORMS NAVY 1964-1969
GORDON SCHULKE NAVY WWII
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AVERY J. DERKSEN ARMY NATIONAL GUARD RETIRED 1980; WWII, KOREA DECEASED 2020
RICHARD CAMERON SR. ARMY AIR CORP. WWII 3/12/2003
DANIEL MITCHELL BUBALO SR AIR FORCE WWII 3/26/2019
SAM SMILICH SR. AIR FORCE 25 YEARS OF SERVICE 3/31/1977
DONALD W. WALSH JR. AIR FORCE 1958-1979
RICHARD REZANKA ARMY 1917-1919; WWI 8/2/1990
RICHARD B. REZANKA AIR FORCE 1943-1945; WWII 3/23/1992
ROBERT J. CLARK AIR FORCE 1943-1945; WWII 8/11/2018
HOWARD DELK AIR FORCE 1946-1949
CHRISTOPHER J. WIENER NAVY 1968-1972
Happy Veterans Day!
Celebrating Those Who Served
Honoring all who served, thank you! BRAINERD
214 W Washington St, Brainerd, MN 56401
001638949r1
(218) 829-5476
Crosby, MN | 218-546-2100 | www.graphicpkg.com
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
Mon-Fri – 7:30-6pm – Saturday 9am-5pm Sunday – 9am-5pm
SANDY STROM-GIESEKE AIR FORCE / AIR FORCE RESERVES 1967-1970; 1973-1994
GREGORY BIGLER COAST GUARD 1987-2017
DANIEL KITZEROW AIR FORCE 2015-PRESENT
ANGIE KITZEROW AIR FORCE 2017-PRESENT
JACK NORDLING MARINES 21 YEARS OF SERVICE DECEASED 2002
JESSICA BEIREIS MARINES 1965-1975 4/30/2013
MATT HAUGE ARMY 2016-PRESENT
RYAN ROJESKI NAVY 2018-PRESENT
TIMOTHY VOLKMUTH NAVY 1969-2007
DUANE HOEFS ARMY 1970-1972
Enjoy listening to our stations anywhere with our new mobile apps for each station by searching for our stations in the App Store or Google Play! S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
27
GERALD HOEFS ARMY WWII 11/12/2011
KEVIN GOEDKER MARINES 1990-1995
HOWARD DOUCETTE ARMY
LANCE SCHMIDT MARINES 1981-1985
SHANNON SCHMIDT MARINES 1992-1996
JACK SCHMIDT MARINES 1956-1959
JOSEPH P. RUNBERG MARINES 1981-1987
WILLIAM C. BONGS MARINES KOREAN WAR
VONDA IVERSON BONGS AIR FORCE KOREAN WAR
“Serving our Members since 1940”
804 Laurel Street, Ste. 101, Brainerd, MN 56401 | 218-829-9065 28
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
CHARLES WATSON NAVY WWII
BILL TAYLOR ARMY VIETNAM
GARY DAWSON ARMY 1966-1969
GARY SCHMEISING NAVY VIETNAM
HERMAN KADING NAVY 1972-1976
LARRY KOSTKA ARMY 1963-1966
GLEN VAN HAVERMAT NATIONAL GUARD 1982-2003
WALLY ETZEL ARMY 1960-1968
PETE WILLIAMS MARINES
TIM ANDERSON MARINES 1982-1986
HARLEY KAISER MERCHANT MARINES / ARMY WWII, KOREA
PETER GAGNON ARMY 1987-1991
JERRY THOMPSON ARMY VIETNAM
DON VANVORST ARMY VIETNAM
ROBERT JOHNSTON NAVY 1952-1955
FRED KELLER NAVY 1951-1954
GENE GAGNON COAST GUARD 1960-1968
SID TOUSLEY NAVY 1957-1962
ARLAND SPEER ARMY
GORDON BERG ARMY 1953-1963
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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As a veteran of the North Dakota National Guard who was deployed in Iraq, Theresa Harsha understands the needs of veterans who return home from duty. She helps meet those needs as coordinator of the Central Lakes College Veterans Resource Center. Steve Kohls / Brainerd Dispatch
Reaching out By Theresa Bourke | Brainerd Dispatch
T
heresa Harsha never thought she’d actually get the job when she interviewed for a position at Central Lakes College in 2014.
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All are welcome at CLC Veterans Resource Center
After being a stay-at-home mom for years, she just wanted to get her feet wet with a couple interviews to ease her way back into the work environment before starting to look seriously. But when the National Guard veteran and former teacher got the offer to be the veterans resource center coordinator at CLC, she jumped right in. “It married the parts — the military part and the education part — into a perfect storm,” she said Wednesday, Oct 7, in her office at the Brainerd college. Now Harsha uses her military experience and her masters degree in education to support student veterans and their families and help them navigate the college world. “I’m very proud of the work we do here. And you’re probably going to see me in
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
the same office 20 years from now, knock on wood,” she said. “I could see myself doing this for a long time.” Don Pfeffer certainly hopes that’s the case, too, as the driving force behind the center’s very existence. A Vietnam War veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, the Little Falls native came up with the idea when he taught at CLC in the early 2000s. “I saw a lot of veterans come into the college that needed help,” he said, recounting his time stationed in Thailand working working with U.S. Air Force intelligence. “When all of us came home, we were basically ignored,” Pfeffer said of Vietnam veterans.
He already had a masters degree but was denied two jobs because of his military background. The stigma surrounding him and his comrades deterred them from even talking about their service. Harsha understands some of those challenges, too, going through hardships of her own after returning from a deployment to Iraq with the North Dakota National Guard in 2004. “Personally speaking, when you come back, you feel like no one understands you,” she said. “You’re just feeling kind of like that square peg in a round hole. Where do I fit? What is my next mission? What is my purpose?” Those are the reasons Pfeffer wanted to start a community veterans center. “The goal of myself and the other community veterans was to make sure that returning veterans would not face that stigma, and particularly as they were coming back into the community,” he said. After doing his research, he found there weren’t really any veteran resource pro-
“Personally speaking, when you come back, you feel like no one understands you. You’re just feeling kind of like that square peg in a round hole. Where do I fit? What is my next mission? What is my purpose?” - Theresa Harsha grams at colleges in Minnesota, and frankly very few across the country. So Pfeffer created the center at CLC in February 2006, acting as director and working with the Legislature and Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs to secure funding. Then he took his idea further, travel-
ing throughout the state to help other colleges do the same thing. Pfeffer said he has been to every public college and university in Minnesota at least once and has visited most of the private schools as well. He has even gone national, speaking at conferences and schools all over the country about his success at CLC.
continued on page 32
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continued FROM page 31 “People can’t believe that that little college did what it did,” he said. And what the college did has not gone unnoticed. Last year CLC earned recognition from Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, a statewide program that recognizes businesses and organizations for their dedication to serving service members and military families. To earn the honor, CLC had to submit a comprehensive plan, along with its programs and policies that support vets. After the acceptance, CLC joined the ranks of the Minnesota Twins and 3M. “We were really excited for that,” Harsha said. Then came the honor from “Military Times” as No. 1 on the ranking of Best Colleges for Veterans among two-year schools in 2020. But awards aside, what CLC did was create a place for veterans and current military service members — young and old — to get the support they need both inside and outside school. In the school setting, Harsha handles GI Bill benefits and often refers veterans to academic advisers on campus for the fields they choose. Outside of education, veterans can get housing, food and even financial support through the center. “A lot of times we have students that come to campus, and they don’t have a place to live. They’re couchsurfing,” Harsha said. “So I reach out to MACV (Minnesota Assistance Council for Veter-
ans), which supports housing for veterans and see if they can help.” CLC has its own food shelf available to all students, but sometimes the resource center can also help veterans out with gift cards for groceries or gas. “While it might not be a big fix, it helps
in the short term,” Harsha said, noting she also connects veteran students with other community organizations, like the American Legion, Crow Wing County Veterans Services and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. While these supports are offered to veterans and their families, the center also has
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
the random acts of kindness — or RAK — fund available solely to veterans. This donation-driven fund provides up to $500 in the case of an emergency, like a broken furnace or car repairs or something of that nature. “And that would then allow the student to maybe not have that burden, like they were going to use the rent check to pay for this,” Harsha said. “Now they can pay the rent check.” In pre-COVID-19 times, the center was also a place for community veterans outside CLC to gather and support one another. Pfeffer and a group of older vets came to campus a couple times a week for lunch and dinner to share food and fellowship. “Veterans will talk more with the other veterans, in particular the older veterans that were coming to the groups,” Pfeffer
said. “This was one of the few places they would go to interact with veterans.” He has always worked to get younger veterans involved in the groups as well. That happened more early on in the center’s life but not so much anymore, as many of the younger vets haven’t seen combat, he said, and don’t feel as much of a need to reach out. But no matter the military experience
— from basic training up to combat — all service members past and present are welcome at the CLC Veterans Resource Center. “I say, if that chair right there in my office could tell stories, I’d have a bestseller on my hands. I wouldn’t have to work,” Harsha joked, pointing to the otherwise ordinary-looking chair next to her desk. “There have been many tears shed in that office, not just by the students, but by
continued on page 35
Serving the Brainerd Lakes Area Our goal is to provide you and your vehicle with the highest
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VETERANS RESOURCES For more information on the Central Lakes College Veterans Resource Center, visit clcmn.edu/veterans-resourcecenter/ or call 218-855-8279. Minnesota State military support services: minnstate.edu/military/, 800-456-8519 GI Bill application: va.gov/education/ CLC scholarships: clcmn.edu/scholarships/ CLC financial aid: clcmn.edu/financial-aid/ Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs: mn.gov/mdva/, 1-888-546-5838
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Honoring all who served. Thank you
Minnesota county veterans service officers: www.macvso.org/ Education assistance: • Army — goarmyed.com/login.aspx, 1-800-817-9990 • National Guard — minnesotanationalguard.ng.mil/ education/, 651-282-4589 • Air Force active duty — 210-565-9470 • Air Force reserve — 720-847-3715
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505 NE Washington St. 521 W Washington St.
• Navy — 850-473-6063
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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A world map in the veterans resource center at Central Lakes College has markers placed on every place vets who have visited the center have been. Clusters are apparent in the Middle East and southeast Asia near Vietnam. Theresa Bourke / Brainerd Dispatch
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE & SACRIFICE With gratitude, we honor America’s veterans and military personnel
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
218.829.6764
“You know their struggles, you know their hard work, you know what they had to put in and sacrifice to be there.” - Theresa Harsha
An impact aided by something that started out as one man’s idea to help his military comrades feel more accepted in society than he did. “It was kind of a promise we made,” Pfeffer said, “which was never again will that kind of treatment be provided to our veterans returning home.”
THERESA BOURKE
218-855-5860 bourke@brainerddispatch.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VETERAN’S FOR THEIR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY AND OUR PEOPLE.
continued FROM page 33 me as well, dealing with these issues that they have,” she continued. “And sometimes that’s all you can do is cry with them and hold their hand. And there’s also been many, many, many times when we’re just rolling laughter.” Another flood of emotion comes when Harsha gets to see students she helped walk across the stage to get their diploma. “You know their struggles, you know their hard work, you know what they had to put in and sacrifice to be there,” she said. As a kid, Harsha graduated from high school the same year her mom earned a two-year college degree. “So I see these parents coming back, trying to do it, and I am like, ‘You have no idea the profound impact you are having on your children right now,’” she said.
Supporting veterans, active military and their families since 1919! BAR & RESTAURANT CATERING AND HALL RENTAL OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 25807 Main St. Nisswa, MN 56468 218-963-9946 www.nisswalegion.com
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THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
A very heartfelt thank you to our veterans and their families. From the staff at Martin’s Sport Shop in Nisswa.
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
218-963-2341 martins@nisswa.net
Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-5:30pm; Saturday 9am-5pm; Sunday 10am-2pm
Today we pause to honor the brave men and women who have made great sacrifice to protect our families, our country, and our freedom.
Trailside Park located in the middle of downtown Pequot Lakes is home to a veterans’ memorial where those who want to pay their respects may visit. Photo by Nancy Vogt/Echo Journal
Thank You
to all past and present military. We give you our thanks and owe you our freedom.
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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Crew chief Tim Bourgoine inspects an engine of a restored World War II-era B-17 bomber in Manassas, Va. Washington Post photo by Bill O’Leary
Flight of restored B-17 bomber harks back to days when skies were not so blue By Fredrick Kunkle | The Washington Post
T
he World War II-era B-17 bomber had taxied to the end of the runway for takeoff over Northern Virginia when a sudden mechanical problem brought us to a halt.
As the pilot revved for takeoff, one of the four engines on the restored aircraft coughed and backfired. Blue exhaust smoke streamed aft from the propellers. For about the next 10 minutes, its 10 or so passengers - including this reporter sat inside a loud, shuddering metal tube, wondering whether the sightseeing flight would be aborted or whether the legendary aircraft could, as advertised, remain airborne in an emergency, even with as few as two engines. As the cabin grew hazy with exhaust, I couldn’t help thinking of a fatal crash involving another restored B-17 bomber, 40
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
Honoring All the Men and Women Who Have Selflessly Served Our Country
Happy Veterans Day!
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in Connecticut, just three weeks earlier. But our pilot aborted, and the B-17, dubbed the Aluminum Overcast, taxied us back to the lobby of Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia. Minutes later, crew chief Tim Bourgoine was on a ladder, his arms and tools sunk inside the giant radial engine to fix a bad spark plug - a piffle as far as the average Flying Fortress bomber was concerned. The downtime offered a chance to reflect on Veterans Day and talk to some of the veteran pilots who flew these planes through conditions that even at best - five miles above the Earth, without oxygen, amid subzero temperatures - were punishing. Many of these pilots were heroic, not to mention wildly lucky, for having flown into combat against Japanese or German forces and lived to tell about it. The World War II combat missions sent 10-man crews of young Americans against enemy fighters and antiaircraft fire that filled the sky with flak. In the early going of daylight bombing, about a third of those who departed didn’t come back. “If they hadn’t given that sacrifice, this would be a much different country. It’d be a much different world,” Bourgoine said. He urged us to think about what those flights were like for people such as James Dieffenderfer. Dieffenderfer - or Jimmie D, as friends knew him in his native West Virginia answered the call when the Army Air Corps visited Virginia Tech looking for pilots after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. On his first combat mission, Dieffenderfer flew from Australia to hit a convoy of Japanese ships off Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea. Shrapnel peppered his aircraft, fatally injuring the bombardier and nearly severing the navigator’s leg. He saw another B-17 blown out of the sky memories that are still vivid and still difficult to talk about. “I had never been shot at before,” said Dieffenderfer, 99, of Orlando. He had planned to fly on the restored B-17 until the long delay changed his plans. “Flying was an awful lot of fun - I enjoyed it from the time I first started out - but it sure got a lot of the fun taken out when somebody starts shooting at you. It’s amazing we didn’t get hit more than we did.” “A shining silver object sailed past over our right wing. I recognized it as a main door,” Lt. Col. Beirne Lay, Jr., said, in an account of a B-17 bombing raid by U.S.
forces against Schweinfurt, a German city that produced ball bearings for the Third Reich’s war machine. “Seconds later, a dark object came hurtling through the formation, barely missing several props. It was a man, clasping his knees to his head, revolving like a diver in a triple somersault. I didn’t see his chute open.” Lay’s story, recounted 76 years ago in The Washington Post, described intense aerial combat as flak burst around his B-17 and waves of Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s streaked into the sky to attack; debris, including human bodies, unopened parachutes and chunks of aircraft, blew past in the slipstream. Another B-17 exploded in midair, leaving only its fuel tanks to fall to Earth in balls of fire. “The sight was fantastic and surpassed fiction,” he wrote. “I learned firsthand that a man can resign himself to the certainty of death without becoming panicky.” The Flying Fortress bristled with firepower. There were 13 .50-caliber machine guns, some of them mounted inside goggle-eyed turrets, that could fire from the top, front, sides and tail. The ball turret,
bulging from the aircraft’s belly, seemed most precarious of all, yet turned out to be the least likely to take a hit. The B-17’s armaments were so lethal that some called it a four-engine fighter, and its ability to remain airborne despite taking unimaginable damage became legendary. The vintage aircraft traveling across the United States today had been delivered to the Army Air Forces too late during the war to see action. It was picked up as military surplus for $750 and used to fly cargo, do aerial mapping and dust for fire ants before it was donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), a nonprofit organization that promotes aviation. The organization spent 10 years restoring the aircraft, aiming to give veterans and others a chance to fly one of the most celebrated planes of World War II. Aviation fans can book 30-minute flights at $450 for those who aren’t EAA members. Veterans and active military members fly free. When an officer jokingly asked who in his class at flight school wanted to fly bombers instead of fighter planes, Roland Martin was the only one to raise his hand.
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Laurie Hall 326 W. Laurel St. Brainerd, MN (3 blocks South of Walgreens)
218-828-0460 S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
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continued FROM page 41 Maybe everybody else wanted a taste of the glory and the swagger that came from being a fighter pilot, but his concerns were more practical. “If one was to become a commercial pilot, he sure wanted to have a multi-engine experience,” Martin recalled in a telephone interview. “And bombers are it.” By January 1943, at the age of 19, Martin had earned his wings with the Army Air Corps. His early B-17 missions over Europe had him bombing submarine bases and enemy airfields in France - almost milk runs, as aviators called easy assignments. But the closer the raids came to Germany, the fiercer the fighting. On Oct. 14, 1943, Martin embarked on a second attempt by U.S. forces to demolish ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt. Swarms of B-17 bombers went in, flying tight formations to defend one another. Flak filled the sky with oily black clouds as Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s streaked in from all angles. “I don’t think I ever went out thinking I was going to die,” Martin said. “I do know that we - the whole crew - was under a great deal of tension. I felt sorry for my crew because I was the busiest, because I had something to do, and all they could do was hope for the best.” His B-17 took so much fire that he lost power in all four engines. A Junkers 88 fighter bomber moved in for the kill, as Martin - struggling to keep the plane in a glide long enough for his crew to parachute out - now had no choice but a crash landing. He brought the B-17 down in a field. After setting fire to the aircraft, he and the navigator took off, pursued by dogs and hoping to reach Switzerland. Two weeks later they were captured and sent to a POW camp. Decades later, Martin returned to the field where he had crashed. He met some of the townspeople, including a 93-year-old German who had seen the crippled aircraft and jumped into a ravine for his own safety. He also met a German who had served on 88 mm antiaircraft batteries during the raid. “I may have been the one who shot you down,” the man said. Martin put his arm around him. “You know, you may have been. But whoever it was, they had damn good aim,” Martin said. At 4:20 p.m., more than four hours later than scheduled, we headed back to the run42
Retired Col. James C. Dieffenderfer on a Virginia runway looking at a restored World War II-era B-17 bomber similar to the one he flew in the Pacific campaign. Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary way for takeoff. Nancy Solomon, whose late husband, William, had piloted B-17s in the Pacific, gripped the edge of her seat as we powered up and rumbled down the runway and then, up, into a flawless blue sky. The flight was smoother than I would have thought, and louder. Through the waist gunner’s large windows we saw the ground falling away as we rose above houses, barns, churches, cultivated fields and patches of forest streaked with early-autumn orange. The man-made objects diminished in size, and the blue dome of
S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2020
the sky appeared to grow larger. “I love it,” Solomon shouted over the engines. “It looks like the ocean out there.” She had signed up for the flight in her husband’s honor and thought of him as she rode: “I’m doing this for you, Bill, because you are my hero.” Now and then a commercial jetliner flashed in the sunlight overhead. And then we began the descent, for what would be a majestic and uneventful 27-minute ride. Solomon began to sing “America the Beautiful” over the roar of the engines.
BRAINERD VFW POST 1647 309 S. 6TH STREET • 829-6393 OPEN EVERY DAY AT NOON!
TUESDAYS $2 Tacos at 5 pm Cribbage at 6 pm
WEDNESDAYS Wings 3/$1 Fries $1 Salads $1 Noon–7 pm
Pull Tabs & wireless Internet always available. Charitable Gambling License # 00475. FREE Hall Rental to Non-Profit organizations.
THURSDAYS
$2 Burgers, $1 Fries, $1 Domestic Beer at 5:00 pm
HAPPY HOUR! Everyday 12:00 pm-5:00 pm
NOBODY DOES MORE FOR VETERANS
Thank You For Your Service!
3855 Independence Rd, Baxter | Phone: 218-829-5798 37568 County Road 66, Crosslake | Phone: 218-692-3101
www.simonson-lumber.com Toll Free: 800-266-6037
HONORING ALL WHO SERVED THIS
THANK YOU
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JIBEC Heating and Cooling would like to
thank all Veterans for their service and sacrifice. We honor you today, and every day, and are forever grateful!
www.jibechvac.com 1775 Dandelion Lane SW Brainerd, MN 56401 • 218-828-0330
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