A Publication of the Daily Mountain Eagle
volume 7 • issue 3 • spring 2019
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A Sailboat Finds The Sea
Depression-era Dolls
WWII Veteran Doris Banks
Vietnam Veteran Giles Portzer
Army Veteran Romalyn Aaron
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VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 3 • SPRING 2019
FromTheStaff... MAGAZINE Established October 2012
PUBLISHER James Phillips EDITOR Jennifer Cohron ART DIRECTOR Malarie Brakefield CONTRIBUTORS Ed Howell, Nicole Smith, Rick Watson ADVERTISING Jake Aaron, Brenda Anthony, Zach Baker, Renee Holly, Liz Steffan BUSINESS MANAGER Charlette Caterson DISTRIBUTION Michael Keeton
Walker Magazine is a publication of and distributed seasonally by the Daily Mountain Eagle, a division of Cleveland Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored for retrieval by any means without written consent from the publisher. Walker Magazine is not responsible for unsolicited materials and the publisher accepts no responsibility for the contents or accuracy of claims in any advertisement in any issue. Walker Magazine is not responsible for errors, omissions or changes in information. The opinions of contributing writers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the magazine and its publisher. Our mission is to promote Walker County and to showcase its many attributes as a quality place in which to live, to work and to play. We welcome ideas and suggestions for future editions of the magazine. Just send us a brief note via email. © 2019 Daily Mountain Eagle WALKER MAGAZINE P.O. Box 1469 Jasper, AL 35502 (205) 221-2840 email: walkermagazine@mountaineagle.com
The weather has turned a little bit warmer in recent days, and the hours of sunshine have started to outnumber the hours of rain, finally. Spring has officially come to Walker County. The staff at Walker Magazine has put together a Spring 2019 edition filled with interesting stories on people from our area. For this edition, we highlight several veterans from different time periods in our country’s history. Doris Banks was a private in World War II who landed at Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped. The Japanese rifle that he found hidden away in a cave has an interesting story to tell. Giles Portzer did combat assault missions in Vietnam. His love for planes took him into the war and has given him a hobby he has loved for many years since he left the military. Portzer has also built two airplanes of his own. Romalyn Aaron is a veteran who served most of her time stateside but has seen active duty in Iraq. She shares how the military helped to shape her as a single mother at the time and helped her to become who she is today. With this magazine being in stands over the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays, it marked a great time to share stories of men and women who have served. Some classic material from the Works Progress Administration is currently on display at the Jasper Public Library. A feature in this issue sheds light on several WPA dolls and other materials that have not been seen by the public in decades. After a recent hurricane in the Gulf, a sailing school lost its entire fleet. A local group of friends who have sailed the Warrior River for several years in a sailboat they owned together decided to donate their boat to the company. The story of its journey is also featured inside the pages of this magazine. We hope you enjoy this magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you.
James Phillips, Publisher
OnTheCover Giles Portzer sits on the wing of an airplane he built now located at Bevill Field in Jasper. Photo by Jake Aaron
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What’sInside
08 | From The Vault Double Takes 10 | Handicrafts of Hard Times WPA art projects 16 | Soul Sailing A pastime becomes life changing 22 | Journey of the Arisaka Doris Banks
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22 32 | Among The Clouds Giles Portzer 40 | Serving Her Country How the Army saved Romalyn Aaron’s life
44 | Community Calendar What’s going on in the county 46 | Snapshots Past events in Walker County
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50 | We Are Walker County Kevin Laird
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From The
Double Takes Compiled by Jennifer Cohron Photos courtesy of the Daily Mountain Eagle
Some photos may be worth a thousand words, but these have some explaining to do.
May 10, 1994 — Charles Wiggins, Tom Nicholson and Larry Lapkovitch tell stories in the presence of Sam Murphy in preparation for the inaugural American Heart Association Celebrity Roast honoring Murphy and Coach Glen Clem.
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Oct. 21, 1993 — Cordova High School Principal Tony Watkins gives Sasha the Pig a kiss during Senior Day. The stunt was part of a fundraiser activity for senior maid Staci Sargent during homecoming week.
Oct. 18, 1993 — Todd Lee of Son’s Supermarket demonstrates how to catch flying money in the First National Bank “Money Mania” booth at the 2nd annual Son’s Supermarket Food, Home and Health Show at Sherer Auditorium as FNB marketing officer Pat Capps works the clock. Thirtyeight people grabbed a combined total of more than $600 while stepping into the booth for 15 seconds.
Dec. 24, 1994 — Walker County ABC agent Lance Colvin Price loads confiscated beer. Agents seized a major holiday supply of beer and whiskey after executing a search warrant at a residence behind Kansas Post Office.
Feb. 2, 1995 — Herman, a groundhog adopted by Tammie Estes, eats one of Granny’s homemade biscuits. Herman ate the biscuits each morning with a glass of Pepsi or milk and sometimes added a side of cookies.
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Handicrafts of Hard Times
Text by JENNIFER COHRON | Photography by MALARIE BRAKEFIELD
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The Great Depression brought suffering not only to U.S. farmers and factory workers but also to the nation’s artists. Writers, photographers, musicians, actors, sculptors and painters were among the more than eight million people given jobs by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1943. “They’ve got to eat just like other people,” WPA administrator Harry Hopkins once said to those critical of federal money being spent on artistic projects. Several years after its formation, the WPA collaborated with the Alabama Department of Education on the Visual Education Project, which employed craftspeople to make visual aids that could be used in public classrooms. Schools were given the opportunity to purchase these materials at cost. In April 1942, the Walker County Library received a large shipment from the Visual Education Project. The bulk of the collection was more than two dozen pairs of dolls, made of paper mâché and dressed in the costumes of their respective nations. They were painted by hand, and each layer of their clothing was hand-stitched. In a pre-television and pre-Internet era, the dolls offered Walker County’s children an exciting glimpse of what it would be like to live in another part of the world. The peoples and periods represented were Spain, Mexico, the Philippines, Holland, Sweden, Poland, Eskimo, Finland, China, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Denmark, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, colonial America, England, Japan, Germany and Italy. (Three additional sets are no longer part of the collection.) The library also acquired four shadow boxes
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depicting scenes from history or literature, a collection of wood blocks representing trees native to Alabama and painted illustrations of their leaves, 40 wooden dolls inspired by characters from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield and “A Christmas Carol” and booklets containing illustrations of Alabama flags, American flags and flags of three South American countries. For the first time in over a decade, the entire collection is on display at Jasper Public Library through May 19. The dolls and other items were made in Birmingham, the “worst hit town in the country” during the Depression, according to President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. Though the receipt has not survived, librarian Elizabeth 12 / WALKER MAGAZINE
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Wiggins did preserve a 1940 catalog of the Visual Education Project that suggests the library would have spent between $40 and $50 on the materials. The dolls cost $26, or $1 per set, far below their true worth but no small sum for a rural library operating in the midst of the Depression. According to Sandra Underwood, current director of the Carl Elliott Regional Library System, the library would not have been able to make such a purchase without the support of library founder and county superintendent of education Dr. James Alexander Moore. “Every year during that time, the Walker County Board of Education contributed about $3,000 a year to the Walker County Library, which is probably why we have as much
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material as we have,” Underwood said. Moore, who became superintendent in July 1920, established a library in his office and stocked it with books purchased with county and state funds, according to a short history of the library written by University of Alabama student Willie Calkins in 1934. In 1930, Moore secured a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to establish the Walker County Library. The Rosenwald Fund awarded a total of $36,500 over five years to the library, which opened in 1931 in the former home of John Bankhead Sr. A branch for African American patrons opened that same year at the Walker County Training School. Moore, who chaired the library’s board of trustees, is likely the person who showed the WPA visual aid catalog to Wiggins (then Tooms). “They were in the same building, and they worked closely together. The library had a lot of satellite collections in the schools and in the communities at that time. They probably thought that the best use of money would be to have one set that could be loaned,” Underwood said. The WPA built the library in downtown Jasper that served the county from 1937 to April 1974, when it was damaged in a tornado. The Visual Education Project collection was housed in the building’s balcony, which was open to school groups who requested a tour from Wiggins. Since the current library opened in 1976, the dolls have been stored in the Elizabeth T. Wiggins Heritage Room in cases custom built to house the collection. The remaining items have spent most of the past four decades in storage. “In 31 years, they’ve been out three times for about a month each,” Underwood said. The last time the collection was displayed together was in 2005 when the Alabama Historical Commission organized a pilgrimage to Jasper. At the time, a representative of the commission told Underwood and Colleen Miller, then head of the Jasper Public Library, that the doll collection was the largest in the state and that the library likely had the largest collection of WPA-era educational materials as well. In 2007, the director of libraries at the University of Montevallo discovered 18 sets of WPA dolls in a cardboard box. The director, Rosemary Arneson, researched their origin and confirmed that they were part of the Visual Education Project’s “Dolls of All Nations” series. Other states had similar projects. The Milwaukee Public Museum has a large collection of dolls and other items produced for the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, which operated from 1935 to 1942 and employed over 5,000 women and minorities, according to the museum’s website. Like the laborers who built roads and public buildings with which the WPA is now most often identified, the artists were likely part of the 15 million Americans who were out of work when Roosevelt took office in 1933. In his 1935 State of the Union Address, Roosevelt announced that more than $2 billion had been spent on direct relief to the destitute. However, he quickly asserted SPRING 2019
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that the government “must and shall quit this business of relief.” “I am not willing that the vitality of our people be further sapped by the giving of cash, of market baskets, of a few hours of weekly work cutting grass, raking leaves or picking up papers in the public parks. We must preserve not only the bodies of the unemployed from destitution but also their self-respect, their self-reliance, and courage and determination,” Roosevelt said. He went on to spell out a broad program that would 14 / WALKER MAGAZINE
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put the 3.5 million able-bodied Americans then receiving welfare back to work. Congress responded quickly with The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, which authorized $4.8 billion for work relief. Approximately $10.5 billion was spent on WPA projects between 1935 and 1943. Critics of the administration referred to the projects as “boondoggles” and joked that the acronym actually stood for “We Piddle Around.” The WPA’s arts projects were especially unpopular. SPRING 2019
“Some critics, among them the New York Times, objected on principle to the idea of paying artists to create art rather than build roads,” author Nick Taylor wrote in “American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA.” Hopkins defended the program as a whole and its employment of artists in particular during a luncheon in 1936. “We decided to take the skills of these people wherever we found them and put them to work to save their skills when the public wanted them. Sure, we put musicians into orchestras. Sure, we let artists paint. It was all right for the
great foundations to give fellowships to artists, but when the United States Government did it because these fellows were busted and broke, then it becomes boondoggling, a waste of money,” Hopkins said. According to Taylor, the WPA presented 225,000 concerts, performed plays, vaudeville acts, puppet shows and circuses to 30 million people, produced almost 475,000 works of art and at least 276 books and 701 pamphlets in addition to its tens of thousands of building projects during its eight years of existence. •
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Soul Sailing A pastime becomes life changing
Text by NICOLE SMITH | Photos contributed by JOHN BIVONA, TY BLACKWELL, TRENT JONES AND REEF RUNNER SAILING SCHOOL
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Three compadres never imagined the journey their sailboat would take. Walker County family doctors Jeremy Ty Blackwell and John Bivona, along with financial advisor Trent Jones, purchased the Catalina 25 sailboat in July 2015. While relatively small compared to other sailboats, the Trident had a great spirit at her helm and was destined to provide an answered prayer amidst unthinkable circumstances. On Oct. 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael hit the Gulf Coast of Florida and destroyed everything at Reef Runner Sailing School in Panama City. Capt. Jeremy Elwell of Reef Runner Sailing said the school owned three boats when the hurricane hit, and they all were lost with the storm. “The entire marina was destroyed. There was something along the lines of 60 boats that were hauled off. There’s really nothing left of the marina, still,” Elwell said. When Jones, Blackwell and Bivona heard of the devastation, it hit home. “It had been annihilated. They lost everything,” Blackwell said. Shortly after, Blackwell had a conversation with his friends about Reef Runner’s plight, and without words, the men knew what they wanted to do. “We made the decision right there,” Blackwell said. The choice was to donate their beloved Trident to
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the sailing school. After all, it was at Reef Runner where the men became sailors. Around Blackwell’s 40th birthday, he made a sailing trip with his friends, affectionately referred to as “pirate looks at 40.” It was supposed to be a solitary, thrilling experience to mark the turning of a page, but it wasn’t long until they enrolled in Reef Runner Sailing School and started taking their first courses. “We were turning 40. It was something new,” Bivona said. “We have a good time. That was just another avenue we could explore.” Jones said they quickly befriended the captains that taught their sailing courses and fell in love with the community that surrounds the sailing school. “They’ve been really good to us. It’s just a really interesting community down there, because it’s right on the water in St. Andrew’s Bay, but also there’s two blocks that have been renovated with restaurants. It’s a great little area,” Jones said. The sailing school gave the friends a challenge, and they say they were fortunate to learn from the best. “Anderson, our first captain, drilled us,” Jones said. “You’ve got to be very aware of the wind and what you’re doing.” During sailing school, the friends also earned a breadth of knowledge about boat repair and how to respond to many circumstances that could arise. Once sailing courses were complete, the friends
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Above: John Bivona, Ty Blackwell and Trent Jones are pictured with an instructor at Reef Runner Sailing School. At bottom: The guys enjoy a sailing excursion on the Trident.
purchased Trident and created lifelong memories aboard. She gave them the opportunity to sail on Warrior River for longer excursions, and they even battled a storm on Lake Guntersville while aboard the sailboat. It was always a place of refuge. “One New Year’s Eve, it rained the entire New Year’s Eve, so we spent about 12 hours on the sailboat,” Bivona said. “We’ve got numerous hours on that boat.” When the time came to part ways with their beloved Trident, it was bittersweet. “Even before this came along, I think we always thought it would end up in the water, down at the coast,” Jones said. Blackwell added, “We had always fantasized that one day we’ll take it all the way down the river. The problem is, with that boat going so slow, it would’ve taken forever.” In November 2018, a boat trailer pulled Trident all the way to Reef Runner Sailing School, right where the journey of its former sailors began.
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“We’re along for the ride. We’re not there for the destination.” - Jacob Bivona SPRING 2019
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At left: Bivona, Blackwell and Jones are on a sailing trip on the Trident at sunset. At right: Bivona, Blackwell and Jones are dressed as pirates, which, ironically, led to them taking sailing courses.
“We always wanted it to find saltwater, and it’s kind of an unconventional way it happened,” Bivona said. “There’s a part of us in the sailing school now.” Blackwell said the boat was desperately needed by the sailing school at the time, considering the Catalina 25 is perfect for training in some of the sailing school’s courses. Reef Runner Sailing was established in 1999, and offers courses at Panama City and Key Largo. Elwell said Trident has already been used for teaching one of the school’s courses. On the sailing school’s website, Trident is described as “a beautiful 25’ Catalina sloop with a wing keel that makes it a breeze to recover from soft groundings and sneak up on some awesome anchorages. She also has a furling headsail, roomy cockpit, outboard motor and other amenities that will make her a pleasure to day sail in the waters of St. Andrews Bay. She is perfect for ASA basic training levels and also for bareboat charters in the Panama City, Florida area.” There’s a video on the Reef Runner Sailing School Facebook page that details Trident’s voyage down south and pays tribute to her former owners. “Their little story that went along with it was touching,”
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Blackwell said. Elwell said Blackwell, Bivona and Jones are no different than other people who have wanted to learn the art of sailing. “We’re the stop for people to follow their dreams. There’s the young folks that are looking for a new adventure, and then there’s the older folks that are looking at retirement — where they want to go and what they want to do,” Elwell said. “We have students that are looking to go on an expedition in the arctic, and a lot of folks are ready to go cruise the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. We offer anything from a single day intro to sailing all the way to a seven-day liveaboard option.” Even though Bivona, Blackwell and Jones donated Trident, they reportedly co-own another boat or two, and they intend on taking a trip to the Gulf Coast in May to visit Reef Runner and reunite for a brief time with Trident. Aside from sailing, the men have taken kayaking trips together, spent time on pontoon boats and also enjoyed water skiing — anything on the water. “You’ve got cruisers and racers — two types of sailors — and we’re definitely cruisers,” Bivona said. “We’re along for the ride. We’re not there for the destination.” •
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Journey Arisaka of the
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In late 1945 or early 1946, Private Doris Banks and several other G.I.’s explored a Japanese cave and got a glimpse of the fierce fighting that would have awaited them if an invasion of the mainland had been necessary. “It was full of all kinds of military equipment – torpedoes, hand grenades, bombs. We got what we wanted. I got that gun,” Banks said, referring to the Arisaka Type 38 bolt-action rifle with bayonet that is currently on display at the Bankhead House and Heritage Center. Its namesake is Baron Arisaka Nariakira, a pioneer in Japanese arms design at the turn of the century. The numeral signifies that it first appeared in the 38th year of the Meiji period. The Arisaka Type 38 was standard issue to infantrymen in the Imperial Japanese Army before World War II and continued in widespread use even after the more powerful Type 99 went into production in the 1930s. More than three million Arisaka Type 38 rifles were produced between 1905 and the end of the war. The rifle Banks brought home measures more than 5’6” in length from stock to bayonet tip, giving it the distinction of being the longest rifle in use during the war. The height of the average Japanese soldier was 5’3”. The rifle was manufactured at the Kokura arsenal, which was in operation from 1935 to 1945. Like all imperial-issued rifles, it is stamped with a 16-petal chrysanthemum, signifying ownership by the emperor. The chrysanthemum is often defaced or missing on the rifles that soldiers brought home from Japan. One theory is that Japanese soldiers removed the symbol as best they could prior to surrender in order to preserve the emperor’s honor. Another is that the order was given by General Douglas MacArthur. The chrysanthemum on Banks’ rifle is untouched.
Text by JENNIFER COHRON | Photos of Japan contributed by DORIS BANKS; Present day photos by MALARIE BRAKEFIELD
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At left: The rifle recovered by Doris Banks from a Japanese cave is stamped with a 16-petal chrysanthemum, signifying ownership by the emperor. The chrysanthemum is often defaced or missing on the rifles that soldiers brought home from Japan. Opposite page: The rifle measures more than 5’6” in length from stock to bayonet tip.
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The stock is made of two pieces of wood fused together. The ornateness of several of its features suggests that it was not one of the so-called “last ditch” Arisaka rifles churned out as cheaply and quickly as possible toward the end of the war. Banks shipped his rifle home to his father, Greely, in a wood box he crafted himself from salvaged lumber. (The elder Mr. Banks had attempted to enlist, but “they wouldn’t take my daddy because he was a coal miner and they needed coal.”) Nineteen-year-old Banks arrived in Japan in November 1945 – four years after Japanese bombs over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, pulled the United States into World War II and three months after atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the island nation’s surrender. “I was lucky. The war ended two weeks before I finished basic training,” said Banks, now 92. Banks was a junior at Curry High School when he received his draft notice. Principal Cecil Burkett got deferments for five students, including Banks, until the end of the school year. Though the war was over, the mission wasn’t. After
finishing basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, Banks traveled first to California and then to Seattle, Washington, where he and 5,000 other soldiers boarded the U.S.S. General W.A. Mann and set sail for Japan. The trip lasted 11 days. The U.S.S. Mann pulled into a small harbor in Hiroshima on Thanksgiving Day 1945. The soldiers had been told to expect a turkey dinner at noon. At 11 a.m., 30 soldiers were ordered to grab their duffel bags and prepare to go ashore. Their Thanksgiving dinner would be downgraded to K-rations. Banks was one of the 30. His first impressions of Japan were shaped by the devastation wrought in the new nuclear age. “As far as you could see, I would say it’s close to four or five miles, was a mountain that reached around from water to water. The railroad track was the only thing left there. We had to wait five hours for the train to come,” Banks said. After an all-night train ride, Banks arrived in Sasebo, Nagasaki, and was placed in the 135th Port Company. He loaded and unloaded ships for several months and was then
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Left side, top to bottom: Fukuoka, Japan bombed building World War II; Fellow G.I.’s in Japan. Right side, top to bottom: Doris Banks selling cigarettes in Japan; Japanese harvesting rice; Tent where Banks and his fellow soldiers lived across bay from Yokahoma, Japan. Opposite page: Doris Banks, Japan.
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Photo by Jake Aaron
For more of Doris Banks’ wartime photos, see Walker Magazine on Facebook.
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Opposite page, left side, top photo: US PX Japan. Opposite page, right side, top to bottom: Railroad depot — Osoka, Japan; Banks standing with the Baron Arisaka Nariakir 38-bolt actio rifle and the box he made for shipping and storage; Osoka, Japan, where Doris Banks was military police in dance hall
reassigned as a military policeman. He was on guard duty one day when 11 U.S. military trucks rumbled down the road. He thought he recognized the driver of the last truck. Banks called headquarters and asked them to send the last driver back to his post. It turned out to be fellow Walker Countian Billy Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Lumber Company. “We went out that night, and we were going to find us a girl. We walked around and never did run into a little village. We just kept walking. It poured down rain on us. When we got back to my tent, it was full of water. So we slept in his truck bed that night,” Banks said. Banks eventually made his way across Japan to Yokohama and Tokyo. While in Japan, he only encountered one of the four other soldiers from Curry who had been drafted together. When he boarded the ship bound for home, he found Hansel Hudson, who had finished school at Curry just before shipping off to war. The ship ran into a storm on the way back. A second disaster struck when a soldier was knocked unconscious after falling five decks when the ship was two days from shore. The storm was so bad that the soldier couldn’t be
transferred to the boat sent out to get him medical treatment. A seaplane arrived safely and picked up the soldier but was overcome by a large wave during takeoff. “The pilots both got out, but that boy is still in that plane,” Banks said. Once in San Francisco, the soldiers were told to unpack their duffel bags for an inspection. Banks quickly stashed the 16 shells he had recovered for his rifle in a cupboard. None of them would make the journey home with him. Banks and Hudson traveled by train to Birmingham and then took a cab into Jasper. Banks walked the last mile to the 40-acre farm in Thach where Greely Banks and three of his sons had built a new house when Doris Banks was 14. “When I got to where I could see, they were all down there picking cotton. When they looked up and seen me, I think I hollered at them and here they come. That ended their cotton picking for that day,” Banks said. Banks had a half-brother who served in the European theatre and also made it home safely. Banks was discharged from the Army on Christmas Day 1946. After the war, he married and relocated to Indiana for several years. He later moved his young family back to Thach. Today he is retired and his son Dewayne runs the family business, B&M Custom Cabinets. •
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Among
Clouds The
Text by RICK WATSON Photography by JAKE AARON and MALARIE BRAKEFIELD
G
Giles Portzer has always been fascinated with airplanes. As a young boy growing up in Boldo, he built models. When he was 17 years old, he worked for an uncle to earn enough money for flying lessons. “Back then it cost $140 for a solo course,” he remembered. He built up about 40 hours of fixed-wing flying time before he ran out of money. He had been married to his wife, Cindy, for a little over a year when he finished up at Walker College. After graduation, the couple moved to Bessemer, where his wife grew up. Portzer landed a job with Long-Lewis Hardware. He worked in the sporting goods department. One Friday morning, a man walked into the store wearing a uniform. Portzer noticed the man had a set of wings on his uniform. During their conversation, Portzer learned that the soldier had just finished helicopter training at Fort Rucker. “After a while, I asked him what he thought my chances would be for getting a slot in flight school,” Portzer said. The man told Portzer that he’d just left the recruiter’s office, and there were openings. “At 12, I punched out and went with him,” Portzer said. The recruiter told Portzer if he could pass the entrance exams, he could get into flight school. Portzer got a ticket for Montgomery and left the following Sunday. “I didn’t come back home until after basic training,” he said. After basic training, he got a week at home before
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heading to Ft. Wolters, Texas for primary flight training. After that, he went to Ft. Rucker for Army Aviation training on the “Huey” helicopter. After training, Portzer headed to Vietnam where he did combat assault missions. They inserted and extracted troops, as well as flew medevac missions. “We also did ash and trash missions,” he said. This is where somebody needed something, or someone moved from one area to another. “Special Forces were the only Americans we worked with,” he said. They did work with Thais and South Vietnamese personnel. 34 / WALKER MAGAZINE
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Portzer’s first mission was a combat assault. He was the co-pilot in the lead ship. “You got all these crazy things running through your head about what’s going to happen, and you’re pretty scared,” he remembered. When the chopper was touching down, there was an explosion just outside their door. “I can remember seeing a hole come in the ground, the smoke, and the smell of it,” he said. Portzer thought they were under fire, but it was a U.S. gunship clearing the way for their landing. “That was to keep the enemy’s heads down during the landing, but I didn’t know it was going to happen,” he said. That wasn’t something they
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taught him in flight school. They taught pilots the basics, but they learned much more when they got over there, according to Portzer. It took about three months before he started flying as pilot command. “My first two days as a pilot, I went down three times with maintenance problems,” he said. He had just lifted off when the last incident occurred. He was flying a mission delivering a colonel to an area near Saigon when Portzer noticed the transmission pressure was dropping. “They say if you lose transmission oil pressure, you got from three minutes to three hours and you don’t know which,” he said. He located an Australian airfield nearby and got the chopper on the ground safely. He was in Vietnam eight and a half months. “They turned us out of the Army so quick, we didn’t know what was taking place,” he said. “We were flying combat and out of the Army the same week. I would have loved to have made a career out of it, but they said there was no place for peacetime combat pilots.”
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When he got out of the Army, he hoped to get a flying job, but at the time the job market was flooded because so many pilots were getting discharged, and there weren’t that many jobs available. He even tried the Air National Guard, but they had a waiting list. Portzer was out of the military about three weeks when a friend at church asked him if he needed a job. He went to work for Sears in Birmingham, where he worked as a service technician for the next 33 years. Those first years were lean. He only made $110 a week before taxes, so Portzer couldn’t afford the cost of flying, but his love of the hobby never waned. A cousin who’d built his own plane inspired Portzer to build one too. “It’s a lot more fun when you have somebody to fly with,” Portzer said. He started building his first plane in 1988. “The first one I built was made of wood and cloth, and it was almost identical to a model,” he said. The plane weighed 300 pounds, had a 25-foot wingspan and cruised at about 75 miles an hour. Once in the air the first time, he thought, “Well
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I’m here now, I’ve got to fly,” he said. Soon after finishing his plane, Portzer’s cousin decided to build a faster airplane. When that happened, Portzer no longer had a flying partner. Several years later around 2012, Portzer started on his second airplane. The new plane was a kit that took him 18 months to finish. The new plane is canary yellow. His plane is a one-seater and considered an experimental plane. The aircraft still has to be inspected and licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Another FAA rule is that you have a repairman’s certificate. He received the certifications in 2014. “Just because you built it doesn’t mean you can keep it up,” he said. “You have to have the paperwork.” The new plane was the first time he’d ever built anything like this out of metal. It weighs close to 650 pounds with a 20-foot wingspan and cruises at 132 miles per hour. “I’m always nervous about flying a plane for the first time. You go from a builder to a test pilot,” he said. “That’s the beauty of a homebuilt plane, you can do it all yourself and decide what goes on it, whereas if it’s a factory airplane, then it’s got to be according to factory specs,” he said. Portzer and his cousin were looking forward to joining other pilots who did weekly fly-ins around the South. After finishing the new plane, the two flew together twice. Then, his cousin died unexpectedly from complications after back surgery. These days, Portzer doesn’t fly as much as he once did, but he still spends time in the hanger at Bevill Field tinkering with his plane. •
Previous page: Portzer assembled his aircraft with a modified AK-47 grip. The name “Porky” is printed on his helmet which was a nickname given to him during his time in the Army. A stuffed teddy bear always stays in the back of the plane as his co-pilot.
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Serving Her
Country HOW THE ARMY SAVED ROMALYN AARON’S LIFE
Text by NICOLE SMITH | Photos contributed by ROMALYN AARON
A
A young mother was faced with a dilemma. “Work at the light was on the right-hand side of the street, and the recruiting office was at the left side of the light,” Romalyn Aaron said, recalling an ordinary autumn day in San Jose, California. “Instead of going to work, I just wound up taking that detour.” Aaron’s family was from the Phillipines, and she spent the majority of her youth in San Jose. It was there she dreamed of becoming a pediatrician, but another aspiration tugged at her heart. “I had this sense of wanting to do something more for my country. Military was always a calling. I wanted to go when I was 16, but things happened,” she said. At 16, Aaron became a mother, and by 23 she had another child and had gone through a divorce. “I wouldn’t change anything for the world, to change how life was,” she said. “I think getting married at a young age and being a mom at a young age taught me to be more responsible — not only for myself but for two lives that I brought into this world.” When Aaron decided to take a detour on that fall day in October, to take a chance on a dream she once had, her life was once changed again. The 9/11 World Trade Center attacks gave Aaron the push she needed to go to a recruiting office in late 2001, and she started basic training in the Army at Fort Jackson, South
Carolina, just after ringing in the new year on Jan. 2, 2002. It was the beginning of a nearly 12-year journey. “That was probably the best time of my life,” Aaron said. “I got to see the world, helping people.” Aaron’s official title in the military was 68S preventive medicine specialist. She described her position as the equivalent to a health inspector. “We did a lot of environmental testing. We collected air samples, and we made sure that every facility was actually safe. I was basically the health inspector,” she said. “The person that goes around and gives every facility a grade, I was one of those people. We were hated but loved at the same time.” During her time in the Army, she traveled the world, spending time in places like South Korea, Nigeria, Iraq and Africa. She was one of few selected to spend 10 days in Africa doing humanitarian assistance with the Air Force, Navy and Army, and she was deployed to Iraq for one year to help the military police turn the prison system back to the state of Iraq. Aaron met her future husband, James Aaron, during a military exercise in South Korea in 2004. They have been married 13 years. He was from Jasper, which is how Aaron eventually settled in the city. She spent 11 and a half years with the Army before being
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medically discharged in 2013. She didn’t want to leave, but it was another instance where a predicament forced her to make a difficult decision. “It’s either you go home and sustain your injuries and basically have an enjoyable future or you can be in the military and have the possibility of being paralyzed from the neck down if you continue on,” Aaron said, explaining the years of work had been hard on her body. While Aaron was in the Army, she was also studying to work in the field of mental health and psychology to help people with PTSD and other difficulties. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology while stationed in Korea and later received a master’s degree. Aaron said her husband was in the Marines and has PTSD, and knowing his struggles prompted Aaron to dedicate her life to making others feel whole again. “I was fortunate to be more on the safer side of my deployment, versus when he went. He saw a lot of bad things,” Aaron said, recalling her husband’s experience. “I think that’s what really pushed me to work in mental health, because of the stuff that he saw and people not
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really knowing what to do. Living with him made me realize we do need people like me to be able to help people and their families deal with PTSD and everything they go through when they’re in the military.” Aaron is now employed as a therapist at the Crisis Residential Unit of Northwest Alabama Mental Health Center, where she helps people with PTSD, schizophrenia, bipolar, depression and other conditions. She remains active with American Legion Post 9 by managing some of their public relations efforts, and she credits the post for helping her remain in contact with people who have served our country. Aaron said she is thankful to everyone who supports the military and insists that her experience saved her life. “I learned so much just from being in the military. Not only did it teach me to be a better citizen, but they enhanced everything that you learned in kindergarten to be a better adult and be prepared for the future,” she said. “If it wasn’t for the military, I probably wouldn’t be here. The military helped me be a better person, and it’s been an experience, for sure.” •
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may – june
CommunityCalendar To submit major community events for consideration in the next issue, send them to walkermagazine@mountaineagle.com.
May 3 SIMMONS AT SUNSET 5K The Simmons at Sunset 5K and Fun Run, presented by Five Loaves Bakery, will be held at T.R. Simmons Elementary School in Jasper on Friday, May 3. The 5K will be held at 5 p.m., while the fun run will start at 6:30 p.m. Entertainment will begin at 5 p.m. May 4 PTRC MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH The Pregnancy Test and Resource Center will host a Mother’s Day brunch at Five Loaves Bakery on Saturday, May 4 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Morgan Cheek will be the guest speaker. May 4 JAZZ IN THE PARK The Bankhead House and Heritage Center will host Jazz in the Park at 7 p.m. with guitarist Joe Camaggio. May 11 ART IN THE PARK Walker County Arts Alliance 16th Annual Art in the Park will be Saturday, May 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Gamble Park. May 18 DINNER THEATER The official opening day of the Walker County Farmer’s Market will be May 18 from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.
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May 24 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION Students across Walker County will graduate on Friday, May 24. May 25 RIDEZ FOR A REASON The 6th annual Ridez for a Reason benefiting Forever and Always Patriots and local cancer patient Mason Scruggs will be Saturday, May 25 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the old Airport. June 8 TALLULAH HALF MARATHON The 4th annual Tallulah Half Marathon will be held in downtown Jasper on June 8. The half marathon begins at 6:30 a.m. and the 5K begins at 7 a.m. June 8 MULE WALKING TOUR The Walker County Arts Alliance will host a mule walking tour in downtown Jasper to share stories of the 50-Mule Team Public Art Project. June 15 “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2” SHOWING The Bankhead House and Heritage Center will show “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” starring Jasper native Michael Rooker on June 15 at 8 p.m.
SPRING 2019
Snapshots ROTARY CLUB TRIVIA NIGHT March 22, 2019 | Downtown Jasper
Eddie Brown and Debbie Olive
Shonya Moore, Rhonda Kohls and Cindy Bennett
Ken Swarts, Julia Smallwood, Jennifer Kimbrell, Francine Swarts, LeeAnn Johnson and Lyndal Worth
Tina Boshell Wilson and Chris Walton
Henry Allred and Rhett Vick
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Trivia Night Winners: Christy and Jake Aaron, Malarie Brakefield, Ed Howell, James Phillips, David Crauswell and Andrea and Breeze Phillips
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PARRISH COAL FESTIVAL April 6, 2019 | Parrish
Johnnie South, Bennie South, Melanie Keeton and Haley Keeton
Parrish Mayor Heather Hall and artist Kate Gurganus with Twisty the mule
Sasha Stewart, Veronica Stewart, Jasmine Ingram, Pam Otts, Camden Stewart, Maziah Irby and Landan Buford
Penne Vinson, Paige Cleveland and Jason Dixon
Samantha Cain and King
Vicky Dunn, Caleb and Gracie
Rick and Jilda Watson
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Snapshots SIPSEY SUBSTATION GRAND OPENING April 6, 2019 | Sipsey
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Jerry Nunn, Brenda Robinson and Stephanie Sanders
Nick and Noah Smith
Beverly Fields, Sharie Fulkerson, Joe Bowe and Heather Bridgmon
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WeAreWalkerCounty with
Kevin Laird
Kevin Laird is the maintenance super visor for the Jasper Parks and Recreation Department. He has worked in the department for nearly a decade. He oversees ever y park in the city as well as ever y ball field. He is also tasked with any city buildings or events associated with parks and recreation. Laird was born and raised in Jasper before moving to Dothan when he was 9 years old. He moved back to Jasper 10 years ago, living here with his wife, Cher yl.
“Getting the ball fields ready for the kids is my favorite part of the job. It takes me back to when I was a kid, growing up and playing ball on these same fields with Jasper Parks & Rec. It means a lot for me to be able to get these fields ready for play. I even get to go watch my own nephew play on them. He plays with the 5 and 6-year-olds. He is all out. If his coach doesn’t stop him, he’s going for a homer because several of us offer $5 for every home run he hits. He makes about $20 or so every weekend.”
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