2011 veterans day

A Tribute to

VETERANS

2 November 11, 2011 A Tribute To Veterans 2011

Cooling with squadron in Da Nang 1971.He’s in the back row, second from left.

Montrose resident Don Cooling is picturedsecond from right. Cooling served in the

U.S. Air Force from 1952-1973.

Picture of Cooling (right) in cockpit ofairplane over Laos-Ho Chi Min Trail,

1971-1972.

Don CoolingU.S. Air Force • 1952-1973

Senior Master Sergeant (Ret.)Served two tours in Vietnam

1965-1966 • 1971-1972

With love, respect and thanks toDonald F. Cooling, Sr. for his yearsof service as one of our company

founders and his 21 years inthe U.S. Air Force.

942 North Park Ave. Montrose 249-3631Telluride 728-1460

A Tribute toVETERANS3684 N.TownsendMontrose CO, 81401(970) 249-3444www.montrosepress.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Attack before dawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Relishing role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A life-long military man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A lesson in leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Wearing the yellow badge . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Under fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Serving country and community . . . . . . . 9

A mover and shaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

From land and sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Still a Screaming Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

ON THE COVER: Cleo Elliott, left, a World War II veteran who participated in the invasionof Iwo Jima in February 1945, and retired Vietnam veteran George Lawrence fold a flagduring the end of a Veterans Day assembly at Pomona Elementary School in 2007.

A Tribute To Veterans 2011 November 11, 2011 3

BY ELAINE HALE JONES

DAILY PRESS WRITER

For nearly two hours, Robert "Bob"Haynes clung to a piece of board aboutthe size of a TV tray in the middle ofthe Pacific Ocean. His life jacket hadbeen blown off, and his left leg was inexcruciating pain.

What happened in the early-morninghours of Nov. 24, 1943, will be etched inhis memory forever.

"I wouldn't be here today if I hadn'tbeen in the ship fitter's workshop nearthe forward elevator," said the 86-year-old Montrose resident.

Haynes, a native of Cedaredge, hadjoined the Navy at age 18, eager andready to serve his country duringWorld War II. He had been assigned tothe USS Liscome Bay as a firemanthird class. The ship, a CVE 56 escortcarrier, was known as the "Jeep" of theNavy for the countless tasks it per-formed, from carrying aircraft totroops to cargo. On that fateful morn-ing, the ship was situated off the coastof Makin Island in the Pacific Ocean.It

had arrived four days earlier as part ofa massive armada assigned to supportthe 27th Infantry Division in the inva-sion of Tarawa and Makin.

A half hour before dawn, someoneon the starboard side of the ship yelled,"Christ, here comes a torpedo!"

It was a warning Haynes said he did-n't hear.

"I was working with a first-class elec-trician's mate named Harry Green-baum," Haynes recalled. "He had juststepped out of the shop when the shipexploded."

When Greenbaum staggered back inthrough the doorway, he was missinghis left arm, bleeding heavily and go-ing into shock.

"I asked him what had happened,andhe said, 'We've been torpedoed.' "

That was the last time Haynes sawhis superior officer.

The torpedo had struck in the worsepossible place,the ship's bomb stowagearea. The hit, which set off 200,000pounds of explosives at one time,ripped the ship in half.

"A couple of the men in the shop whoweren't hurt too bad managed to openour side hatch, and I crawled over tothe opening and dropped into the sea,"Haynes said of his escape from the rag-ing fire headed toward them. "I tried toget as far away from the ship as I could.I knew she was going down."

The USS Liscome Bay sank in ap-proximately 28 minutes. Out of a crewof 914 men, only 272 survived. Hayneswas eventually rescued by the USS

Franks.Later,while Haynes recovered from a

severely fractured leg in a hospital bedin Los Angeles, he received a specialvisit from Adm. Chester A. Nimitz,commander of the Pacific Fleet, whoawarded him the Purple Heart.

After a long career in the militaryand postal service in Montrose,Haynes looks back on his service to hiscountry with pride and appreciationfor his fellow servicemen.

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Montrose residentsurvives sinking of ship

JOEL BLOCKER / DAILY PRESS

Montrose resident Robert ‘Bob’ Haynes was one of the only 272 survivors when his ship,the USS Liscome Bay, sank on Nov. 24, 1943, after being struck by a torpedo.

Attack before dawn

BY MATT LINDBERG

DAILY PRESS SPORTS EDITOR

In 1978, high school wasn’t inter-esting to a then-17-year-old JohnBoughton. So he joined the U.S. Navyseeking structure and purpose.

Boughton retired from the Navywith a remarkable resumé 24 yearslater, but he wasn’t ready for a 9-to-5 kind of job. Instead, he decided hewanted to give back, and for thepast nine years, he has served aschief/naval science instructor ofthe Navy Junior Reserve OfficerTraining Corps at Montrose andOlathe high schools.

“I love this job with a passion,”Boughton said. “This is the one job Iget up for, and I am in a hurry to gethere. High school wasn’t important tome, and now I understand just howimportant it is. So I have so much pas-sion for helping students achieve inacademics and in life.

"I was always on the receiving end ofthe public school system," he said. "Iwant to make sure kids are not with-out responsibility and manners. Iwant them to learn how to be bettercitizens.”

Boughton and Cmdr. Scott Rizzohave done a good job of that thus far,based on recent unit accomplish-ments. The Montrose/OlatheNJROTC group has been recognizedas a Distinguished Unit seven timesin the past nine years, including lastyear. That means the MHS/OHSgroup is considered among the top 15percent of the 700 units across the

country in its class.But the journey to this point was a

long one for Boughton. He grew up inBay City, Mich., and was one of theNavy’s seabees when he first joined.Seabees have a history of buildingbases, bulldozing and paving road-ways and airstrips, among other con-struction tasks.

Boughton’s first position was as abuilder/carpenter, but he graduallyworked his way up the ranks, becom-ing a chief petty officer in the 17thyear of his career.

Throughout his 24 years of service,Boughton traveled across the world,including to Puerto Rico, Japan,Spain and Panama. He said he saw alot of violence first hand and lostmany friends.

“To see death like that upfront ishorrifying,” Boughton said. “To sitwith someone you know isn’t going tomake it, and to know one day it couldbe you, is difficult. But you don’tthink about it when you’re goingthrough it.”

Still, there were a lot of great thingsabout being in the Navy, the chiefsaid.

“I had the opportunity to travel allaround the world and be involvedwith people of all cultures … ,”Boughton said. “I was learning to bean ambassador for the United States,while completing my main mission,which was to support and defend theU.S. Constitution.”

Boughton earned his college diplo-

ma and taught special programs forseveral years before he retired fromthe Navy in 2002. After learning froma friend about NJROTC, he decidedthat applying his teaching skills andthe principles he learned in the Navyto help young people was the rightmove for him.

“I thought I could still have an affil-iation with the Navy and still have animpact,” Boughton said. “I’ll never bea civilian. I’ll never transition intothat. Everything I think about has todo with structure, discipline and ac-countability. I can apply those thingshere.”

Boughton moved from Hawaii toMontrose in the summer of 2002 andhas never looked back.

Helping lead local cadets is more ofa lifestyle than a job for him. He startshis day by 6:30 a.m. and sets no time

for when he finishes. He said whenev-er his cadets need him, he’s there, re-gardless of time.

“This is a totally different animal,”Boughton said. “But I absolutely lovewhat I do. What I do every day is takethe principles that were taught to mefor 24 years. People taught me, sotherefore I need to carry on the tradi-tion. I want [cadets] to treat peoplewith respect, be positive and becomegreat citizens. If I can influence themto be like that, that’s fantastic.”

People shouldn’t expect Boughtonto be doing anything different any-time soon, either.

“They’ll probably have to haul meout of here, because I never want tostop,” Boughton said. “I never want tostop teaching young people how tosurvive in the world. I love this jobsimply because I see an end result.”


Relishing RoleFormer Navy petty officer teaching atMontrose and Olathe high schools


Chief John Boughton, who retired after a 24-year career in the Navy, now helps run the NavyJunior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Montrose and Olathe high schools.


BY MIKE EASTERLING

DAILY PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

The substitute teacher many of hisstudents refer to affectionately as"Mr. B" wasn't always as committedto education as he is now, semi-re-tired after a 30-year career of work-ing with special-needs children inMontana, New Mexico and Colorado.

In fact, in August of 1958, RichardBarnett — now a Montrose resident— was sorely in need of some direc-tion. His high school principal actu-ally asked him what he was doing inschool, and Barnett got the distinctimpression his parents would be gladto be rid of him.

So he decided to accommodatethem and joined the Marine Corps.Before he left for boot camp, an unclewho had served in the Marines dur-ing World War II gave him a piece ofadvice: "Keep your mouth shut, andyour shoes shined."

Barnett celebrated his 18th birthdayon a Sunday. A day later, he found him-self standing tall at the Marine CorpsRecruit Depot in San Diego. Life as heknew it had taken a dramatic — andpermanent — change of direction.

Barnett would spend most of therest of his life as a serviceman, doingconsecutive three-year hitches in theMarines and later serving in theArmy reserve and National Guard,and the Air National Guard and AirForce Reserve. As a Marine, he wouldrise to the rank of sergeant and seethe world, serving at posts in Oki-nawa, Japan, and Taiwan, where hehelped train the Nationalist ChineseMarines.

In March 1960 in Taiwan, he partici-pated in the largest amphibious land-ing since World War II. Operation BlueStar was a five-day exercise in south-ern Taiwan. Under the protective cov-er of Marine and Chinese aircraft,joint forces of combat-ready U.S. andChinese Nationalist Marines assault-ed the beaches in one of the largestship-to-shore war games in the West-ern Pacific since World War II.

But perhaps the most memorablemoment of Barnett's Marine careercame on Nov. 22, 1963. Serving as anordnanceman at a base on KaneoheBay in Oahu, Hawaii, Barnett and hisfellow Marines received word thatPresident John F. Kennedy had beenfelled by an assassin's bullet in Dallas.

Barnett said there were two Navydeck guns at the base, and he was putin charge of firing the guns, alongwith two crews, once every 15 min-utes to honor the late president. Bar-nett kept the casing from the firstshell fired, cut it down and mountedhis belt buckle on it. He later had itengraved, "Fired Nov. 22, 1963 in Hon-or of J.F. Kennedy."

Barnett went home to Californiawhen his enlistment was up in 1966and found work at Knott's BerryFarm, portraying such characters asa gunslinger, gold miner, saloon keep-er and even Judge Roy Bean. But oneday, a young tourist named Carolestrolled through the swinging doorsof the saloon and stole his heart. Thetwo would get married and spendtheir lives together.

Barnett went on to serve severalmore stints in the reserves and na-

tional guard over the next severaldecades while also returning toschool to earn his bachelor's andmaster's degrees. His long and distin-guished career as an educator teach-ing special-needs students was inter-rupted by periodic military assign-ments to such locales as Alaska,South Korea and England. He earneda number of citations, the most pres-tigious of which came in September1994, when he was awarded the Meri-torious Service Medal for outstand-ing noncombatant service.

Finally, in April 1997, Barnett re-tired from the military. But he still re-flects on his decision to join theMarines all those years ago. Bootcamp was misery, as he recalls, but ithelped him become what he thoughtthen was a man.

"Since that eventful time of my life,I have learned that to be a man doesnot take just brawn and size, but car-ing and love for others," he said. "Lifecan be very complicated, and I doubtif I still have it completely right."

A life-longmilitary man

COURTESY PHOTO

Richard Barnett is a career serviceman and educator, combining stints in the Marine Corps,Army and Air Force with more than 30 years of work teaching special-needs children.


MacHale to speak at highschool assembly today


Mark MacHale, superintendent of the Montrose County School District, says his service in the Air Forcegave him direction and self-discipline.

A lesson in leadership

All veterans invited to today's assemblyMontrose High School students and staff members invite all

veterans, as well as members of the community, to join them to-day for their annual Veterans Day assembly starting at 9:45 a.m.in the high school gymnasium. A reception for the veterans willfollow the assembly.

"It's been a tradition to have an assembly to honor veterans forquite some time," coordinator Heidi Voehringer said. "We don'thave a lot of assemblies at the high school, but this is an impor-tant one and gives students a chance to hear from veterans andbe aware of the larger world around them."

BY KATI O'HARE

DAILY PRESS WRITER

Montrose County SchoolDistrict Superintendent MarkMacHale wasn't always theleader people see today. He ad-mits that as a young man, hewas like many his age andlacked direction and self-disci-pline.

MacHale rebelled againstthe notion that he would go in-to an education-related careerlike the rest of the members ofhis family. He doesn't sharethose stories of defiance, how-ever, as they are "wildly inap-propriate" for the public ear,he said, chuckling.

MacHale's journey to wherehe is today — an educator for21 years who now heads a

school district of more than6,000 students — is a complexone. But it all started with hisdecision to join the U.S. AirForce in 1978, just out of highschool.

"I felt I needed to increase myself-discipline," he said.

That kind of reasoning issomething one local Army re-cruiter, Staff Sgt. Chris Abra-hamson,has heard often in hisline of work. Actually, he said,he's "heard it all," but a major-ity of what he talks aboutwhen a new recruit walksthrough his doors is leader-ship.

"That is what businesses arelooking for," he said.

MacHale's time in the mili-tary was short — only five

years — and he didn't see anycombat. But he did learn fromboth good and bad leaders, hetraveled the world, and helearned lessons he still reflectson today.

"It was never my goal to stay,but I got self-discipline, and Igot leadership," MacHale said."One can't reach their poten-tial until they change throughmaturing, and feeling painand discomfort."

MacHale's entry test for theservice revealed problemswith his depth perception. Asa result, he was assigned toload aircraft in South Caroli-na. By the time he had been inthe Air Force for three years,MacHale was ready to see theworld and told his superiors

he would go anywhere.His new assignment took

him to Tokyo, where he be-came a supervisor of Japan-ese nationals who had gone towork for the U.S. governmentafter World War II.

A young man at the time,MacHale said he still remem-bers a lot of the lessons helearned from those much old-er Japanese men.

Their devotion intriguedhim, he said.

"What I remember most isthe relationships I had withthem," MacHale said. "Whatthey had to go through, theytruly knew suffering andhardship, and were still so ap-preciative of what they hadand what their kids had."

After finishing his militaryservice, MacHale went on towork with disturbed adoles-cents and found he really didenjoy teaching.

"You don't have to be in ahuge rush to grow up," he ad-vises young people today. "Ittook me a while to find mypath ... I didn't find it at 18. Butalso, you can't find it living inyour parents' basement."

This Veterans Day, MacHalehas been asked to speak at theMontrose High School's annu-al Veterans Day assembly.

"I served. I did not sacrifice,"MacHale said. "Veterans Dayis about those people. It'scalled gratitude, and we haveto say thank you."


COURTESY PHOTO / LU ANNE TYRRELL

Delta native Tom 'Speedy' Garcia did two tours of duty in Vietnam as a member ofthe 1st Cavalry Division, going on to earn a Bronze Star.

Wearing the yellow badgeBY LU ANNE TYRRELL

SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS

Vietnam is a conflict and a namethat will long be emblazoned in Amer-ica’s history and consciousness. For ayoung Delta native named Tom"Speedy" Garcia, it would be a namesynonymous with loss.

Garcia enlisted in the Army aftergraduating from high school in 1967.He did so because he said it was some-thing that seemed right to do, thoughhe admits now he had little idea ofwhat awaited him.

“In fact, I didn’t even know thatVietnam existed until I enlisted,”Garcia said.

That all changed in a short period.Garcia had a dream of wearing thecoveted yellow patch of the 1st Cav-alry Division and immediatelywent into infantry training. Hisdream became a reality, and theyoung cavalry soldier's duties in-cluded experimental combat avia-tion and combat helicopter assault.His unit also pulled out the wound-ed and the dead in combat zoneswithin the demilitarized zone.

By 1968, with the Tet offensive, thewar had turned into a stalemate.

“It was the time when North Viet-nam threw everything at us, and Ihad a lot of hatred at the Chinesewho were re-supplying Vietnam’sefforts," he said. "As a result, I lostsome good friends at that time.”

Eventually, his tour of duty inVietnam came to an end, and Garciareceived a stateside assignment inOklahoma. But at the same time,Garcia’s younger brother had en-listed, and in an effort to keep hisbrother from having to serve a com-bat assignment, Garcia offered tore-up for another tour of duty inVietnam. His younger brother thenwas assigned to Germany, and Gar-cia was assigned to a 13-month tourof duty patrolling the DMZ. It was

during that assignment that Garciawould earn a Bronze Star for hispart in repelling an enemy assault.

Later, his second tour complete,Garcia was at last ready to come homeand was stationed in North Carolina,remaining in the Army until 1978.The decorated staff sergeant proudlyserved his country for 11 years, earn-ing numerous citations along the way.

But the military remains a big partof his identity, and today, the decorat-ed veteran is proud to be involvedwith the Disabled American Veter-ans, local veterans events such as the2010 Vietnam Moving Wall tour inMontrose, and the Vietnam VeteransMotorcycle Club, which has under-gone a transformation as the LegacyGroup and now includes post-Viet-nam veterans. Garcia says that is away for him to help out soldiers whoare just now coming home from awar in Afghanistan that rivals theAmerican experience in Vietnam forlongevity.

“It’s time to bring our boys home,"he said. "We are fighting the samepolitical war that Vietnam was."

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Delta native Garcia fulfilleddream by serving in 1st

Cavalry Division in Vietnam

1st CavalryDivision

shouldersleeve

insignia

BY KATHARHYNN HEIDELBERG

DAILY PRESS SENIOR WRITER

Randy Havens doesn't have to readhistory books to know when theNorth Vietnamese first piloted a MiGbomber against the Navy in the Gulfof Tonkin.

He was there, as an 18-year-old enlist-ed man — and he was on the destroyerthat shot down one of the enemy fight-ers on April 19, 1972.

The MiG took aim at his boat, theUSS Sterett, escorting a carrier groupthrough the gulf. Radar alerted thecrew to incoming enemy fire.

"We shot down an enemy MiG thatwas coming from the coast of Viet-nam," Havens, now a bank president,recounted.

The Sterett launched a Terrier sur-face-to-air missile, taking out the planeduring what became known as theDong Hoi engagement. That same day,crews on the boat launched a secondTerrier missile at an unidentified tar-get, also picked up by radar, and woundup destroying a Styx missile.

"We destroyed that mid-air," Havenssaid.

He and others were kept in generalquarters, in full battle gear, ready to go— and focused on the job at hand, morethan the danger.

"You've been trained to do a job, andyou just do it. You worry about it, butyou don't expect the worst," he said.

"Everyone was relieved, of course.We knew we hadn't been hit, to beginwith, and the MiG had been shot downsomehow. ... If we couldn't have shotdown the MiG, it would have reachedus, and we would have had severe dam-age. Fortunately, we reached it."

The Sterett received nine battle starsfor its service along the Vietnamesecoast, according to the Naval Histori-cal Center. A ship commissioned in2009 now bears the proud name ofSterett, after 18th century Navy Lt. An-drew Sterett.

Havens decided to join the service ata time when anti-military sentimentran high in the United States. Heserved from 1971 to 1975, attaining the

rank E-5, and spent a year of that inVietnam, January 1972 to February1973.

"I made the choice to enlist and try tomake something of myself," Havenssaid, explaining the 1970s were "differ-ent times."

"We didn't come home to ticker-tapeparades. We came home to 'Why wereyou there, and why did you do what youdid?' " he said.

"It was a political war that was mis-understood by many, but the fact re-mains the people who were there werejust doing their jobs."

If the atmosphere in the U.S.was crit-ical, in Vietnam, it was chaotic, and histime there was tense with worry, espe-cially for his fellow sailors who had

started their own families."There was a lot going on, and a lot of

sleepless nights," Havens said. "I wasgone for a year, and thank goodness Ididn't have a direct family at home.Thepeople who did have wives and kids, ittook its toll on their marriages. I can'timagine what these guys are goingthrough now, when they have six-month turnarounds."

Havens has a message about the con-flict in which he served: "The peoplewho were there were serving theircountry. We were doing what we wereasked to do, maybe not what we want-ed to do, but what we were asked."

And for today's men and women inthe armed services, a simple message:"Thank you for your service."


Randy Havens, now the president of a local bank, served on a Navy destroyer during the warin Vietnam.

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Under fire:8 November 11, 2011 A Tribute To Veterans 2011

Still serving countryand community

BY LU ANNE TYRRELL


Two dates in Novem-ber hold significancefor retired MarineGary Gratton. Thisyear, Nov. 10 marks the236th anniversary ofthe founding of the U.S.Marine Corps, whileNov. 11, Veterans Day,honors all those whohave served in theAmerican armedforces.

Gratton followed thecall to serve his countrynot once but twice.Along with a couple ofother high school class-mates, Gratton enlistedin the Marines immedi-ately after high schoolgraduation, servingfrom 1966-1969.

Gratton completed hisbasic training at ParrisIsland, S.C. From there,the young Marine spentthe next 14 months inVietnam, where he wasengaged as a combat en-

gineer four miles southof the demilitarizedzone. Though it was anunpopular war, Grattonwas a proud Marinewho felt then and now itwas an honor to servehis country during thehighly controversialVietnam conflict.

The ensuing years of1969-1975 found Grattonliving stateside as acivilian building homesin Ohio. By 1975, Grat-ton felt it was time to ful-fill the remaining threeyears of his militarycommitment and onceagain serve his country.

Those three yearscame and went, butGratton stayed on tocontinue serving until1996. During that time,he again found himselfoverseas, this time inOkinawa during Oper-ation Desert Shield andlater providing helicop-ter support for Opera-tion Desert Storm.

The day after his mil-itary career was com-pleted, the Grattonsmoved to Montrose tostart their retired life.

For Gratton, there iscommonality betweenserving his country andserving his community.And the Montrose areahas fulfilled his desire toserve his community.

Gratton is the com-mander of DisabledAmerican VeteransChapter 17. Among theDAV’s duties are provid-ing transportation forveterans to and frommedical appointments,as well as participatingin military honors dur-ing veterans' funerals.He balances his DAVand Veterans of ForeignWars duties with his in-volvement at ChristChurch of the Valleyand numerous localChristian missions.

“Don’t sweat the pet-ty stuff' is certainly

something I havelearned and share as aresult of my combinedmilitary service," saidGratton, a husbandand father of five.


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Gary Gratton moved toMontrose after a long ca-reer in the Marine Corps

and now serves as thecommander of the localchapter of the Disabled

American Veterans.

'Don’t sweat the petty stuff' is certainlysomething I have learned and share as a result

of my combined military service.'

Gary GrattonRetired U.S. Marine

s



DAILY PRESS WRITER

Ellen Flanary joined the mili-tary on a dare.

"My friends and I were watch-ing TV one day and saw a recruit-ing commercial for the Marines,"she recalled, noting that herfriends immediately turned toher and said, 'You can't do it!' re-ferring to joining the MarineCorps.

Flanary, who grew up in New-port Beach, Calif., admitted thatshe had no intention of joiningthe military, even though her fa-ther was a decorated World WarII veteran who fought at PearlHarbor.

"The 'service' was never dis-cussed in our home," she said.

The dare, however, posed a chal-lenge for Flanary — one she waseager to take on.

In 1985, she entered basic train-ing at Parris Island, S.C., andCamp Lejeune, N.C. Twentyyears later, she retired from theU.S. Marine Corps as a gunnerysergeant. Her advancementthrough the ranks and special-ized training earned her an im-pressive list of medals andawards, including five MarineCorps Good Conduct Medals, Ko-rean Defense Service Medal,Global War on Terrorism Medal,Navy Commendation Medal andAll-Armed Forces Okinawa Fe-male Athlete of the Year, just toname a few.

"It's a rough service forwomen," she said.

During one of her last deploy-ments to South Korea and Aus-tralia as a deployed unit senioradviser, she was in charge of 222Marines, seven of whom werewomen. Her duties includedoverseeing security, arrangingtransportation, physical train-ing, joint forces training, lodg-ing and morale trips in foreigncountries. Joint training exer-cises with the Aussies in the Out-back were just one of the high-lights of the deployment, de-spite "the cold, spiders andsnakes."

Flanary's role as a drill in-structor also put her in a posi-tion to inspire women recruits.

"You have to be tough and com-petitive, yet remain true to your-self as an individual and awoman," she said.

Flanary retired from the Ma-rine Corps in October 2005 tospend more time with herdaughter.

"My mom lived here (in Mon-trose)," she said, adding that herdaughter now considers Mon-trose her "hometown."

Flanary was employed as di-rector of the Montrose Pavilionfor two years before making hermost recent change — goingback to college to get her mas-ter's degree in business adminis-tration. She currently devotesmuch of her free time to volun-

Two-decade career highlightswomen's role in military

COURTESY PHOTO

A retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, Ellen Flanary is now pursuing her master's degreein business administration.

A mover and shaker


(970) 249-5000www.MontroseACT.com

teer efforts, serving as the local co-ordinator for the Marines' Toys forTots campaign.

"I want to make a difference inpeople's lives," she said.

But there isn't a day that goes bythat Flanary doesn't look back onher military career.

"What I miss most about the mil-

itary is the camaraderie, unifor-mity and accomplishments ofachieving what seemed like impos-sible challenges," Flanary said. "Ifeel safe, enjoying this part of mylife, an American, civilian citizen,knowing the Marines I trained areprotecting us in every clime andplace."

COURTESY PHOTO

As a former Marine Corps drillinstructor, Ellen Flanary trainedMarines who are now servingaround the world.

STAFF REPORT

A Veterans Days memorial serv-ice featuring two guest speakers anda fly-over is planned for 11 a.m. to-day at Grand View Cemetery.

Bob Strong and Cleo Elliott willspeak at the ceremony, which will befollowed by lunch at MontroseBank, 200 N. Townsend Ave.

Veterans needing transportationto the event are asked to call 240-4698. They will be picked up at theirresidence by All Points Transit andtaken to Montrose High School for aschool assembly, then transportedto the cemetery for the 11 a.m. serv-ice.

Speakers, fly-over planned atmemorial service



DAILY PRESS WRITER

In the early-morning hours ofFeb. 19, 1945, more than 70,000Marines landed on the small is-land of Iwo Jima, a heavily forti-fied Japanese stronghold in thePacific, located halfway betweenJapan and the U.S.-occupied is-land of Guam.

Only eight square miles in size,barren of vegetation with beachescovered in coarse black granulesof volcanic glass, Iwo Jima servedas a key observation point for theJapanese to spot incoming B-29bombers headed for the mainland.

Despite being bombarded byshelling for more than threemonths prior to the invasion onFeb. 19, a complex undergroundnetwork of tunnels (17 miles)shielded an unseen enemy of23,000 Japanese soldiers.

"The landing began a little be-fore 9 a.m.," Bob Strong, WWII vet-

eran and former Montrose mayor,recalled. It was the calm before thestorm, an eerie silence before "allhell broke loose at 10 a.m."

Strong was serving aboard theNavy attack transport USS High-lands APA 119 as a Seaman 1stClass (S1/C). His job was to trans-port Marines from the USS High-lands (five miles out to sea) to des-ignated beaches along Iwo Jimausing smaller landing craft.

Approximately 40 men wereloaded in each of the landingcrafts, which circled in the outerwaters before heading to shore.

"Another one of my duties wasto pass the bucket," he said. "WhenI saw a soldier starting to turngreen, I quickly handed him thebucket, otherwise I would have toclean up (vomit) from the deck."

The landing craft's target wasRed Beach One & Two, locatednear the foot of Mt. Suribachi, adormant volcano rising 556 feet at

the island's southern end."We went in on the sixth and 14th

waves," Strong said. "The remain-der of the time we carried suppliesand wounded men. We spent ap-proximately a week at Iwo Jima.Five days and four nights of thatweek were spent in our boat."

One memory, in particular, stillhaunts the WWII veteran today.

"I sat there (in the boat) andwatched my fellow Marines get-ting picked off one by one byJapanese fire and couldn't do adamn thing about it," he said.

Scars of the battle of Iwo Jimaare still visible, both mentally andphysically, for fellow WWII veter-an and Montrose resident Cleo El-liott.

Elliott was part of the 3rd Ma-rine Division, 3rd Tank BattalionC Company, which landed onGreen Beach, also located at thesouthern end of the island.

"It stunk!" he exclaimed, refer-

ring to the nauseating smell of sul-phur which continually oozedfrom the ground. "Tent stakes gotso hot you couldn't handle them."

Over the next month, Elliott andmembers of C Company attempt-ed to keep the tanks moving in-land. The volcanic ash, whichmanaged to work its way into sol-diers' boots, swallowed the heavyequipment like quicksand. Even-tually, large pieces of metal wereused as roadways over the roughterrain.

Today, Elliott bears the scars ofwar in his hands, burned whiletrying to save his fellow Marinesduring a fire. One image, however,still brings tears to his eyes andchokes his voice.

"A fellow soldier and I were run-ning side by side up a hill when heaccidentally stepped on a landmine," Elliott said. "I looked over.He had been literally cut in half bythe blast."

WWII veterans share battlefield memories of Iwo Jima


(Left) Cleo Elliott, foreground, a WWIIveteran who participated in the inva-sion of Iwo Jima, and Bill Minerich,commander of the Veterans of For-eign Wars Post 784, place an Ameri-can flag on a wooden beam outsidePomona Elementary School.

(Right) Former Montrose Mayor BobStrong served on a Navy attack trans-port during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

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Five Marines and a Navy corpsman raise the second flag on top of Mount Suribachi Feb.23, 1945. The service members are (from left to right) Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, MichaelStrank (behind Sousley), John Bradley, Rene Gagnon (behind Bradley) and Harlon Block.

The battle for Iwo Jima:• A total of 70,647 Marines landed on Feb. 19, 1945, supported by800 armada ships.• There were 36 days of intense fighting which ended March 26, 1945.• A total of 6,821 Marines were killed, while 19,217 were woundedor missing in action.• The landing employed 550 Amtracs and more than 900 LCVPs (landing craft).• The object was to land 9,000 troops in 45 minutes.

"I had to keep going," he said. "Ihad to focus on my job."

On Feb. 23, both men witnessedthe placing of the first Americanflag atop Mt. Suribachi. The follow-ing day, that smaller flag was re-placed with a larger one broughtfrom one of the ships. It was thisphotograph, taken by the late JoeRosenthal, that has become one ofthe most iconic American photos inhistory.

At the conclusion of a month ofintense fighting, the smoke cleared,

and the rounds of artillery thatonce shook the island fell silent.Nearly every spot along the beachwas littered with debris, includingoverturned landing craft, tanksburied in the sand and abandonedweaponry.

"There were stacks of dead sol-diers everywhere," Elliott sadly re-called.

Both Strong and Elliott believe theinvasion of Iwo Jima was necessaryto save more lives and preserve ourfreedom.


Still a SCREAMING

EAGLE

BY LU ANNE TYRRELL


The rugged lines of his face andhands poignantly display the grandNavajo heritage and help tell the ex-traordinary story of 1st Sgt. JamesA. Kimble’s military career — a manwidely known as "Chief."

“I am 120 percent Navajo,” he pro-claimed proudly, as he began to tellhis story with occasional assistancefrom close friends Gary and NancyJohnston. Kimble was born inHouck, Ariz., in 1924 on a sheepskinrug. At age 14, he “ran away” to Col-orado, where he was a laborer on abeet farm in Lamar.

Kimble began his life in the mili-tary in 1943, enlisting in the U.S.Army, which took advantage of hisinterpretive skills throughout hiscareer. Four weeks of training inFort Benning, Ga., prepared Kimblefor his assignment as a paratrooper.

“And it was where I was issued mywings” he said.

Little did Kimble know that someof the iconic battles of World War II— D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge andand the Battle of Bastone — were tobecome a part of his personal histo-ry during the next few years.

The spirited Navajo was assignedto G Company of the 101st Airborne,otherwise known as the famedScreaming Eagles. As part of the101st, Kimble was dropped intoFrance on D-Day, then moved on toHolland to fight the Battle of Bas-tone and later the Battle of theBulge. But it was not until recentlythat Kimble felt comfortable talkingin detail about his experiences on D-Day, explaining that his memorieshave simply been too painful. The101st lost approximately one-third ofits paratroopers on that fateful day.

It was in France that Kimble pro-

Navajo paratrooper Kimble waspart of war's most famous battles


(Above, right) World War II veteran James 'Chief' Kimble poses in a paratrooperuniform. As a member of the 101st Airborne, Kimble, a member of the NavajoNation, fought throughout Europe during the war.

(Above) Photos from the collection of James 'Chief' Kimble are pictured fromhis days as a paratrooper. The shot at lower right is a photo of Kimble duringWorld War II.


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A FamilyTraditionof Trust

cured a Nazi flag from a German sol-dier's body. He subsequently drewhis unit's insignia on the flag, andmembers of his unit signed theirnames to it. Kimble has kept the flagto this day.

Upon mustering out in 1946, theColorado resident returned home toLamar,married and started a family,but was unable to find significantwork. So he re-enlisted in the Army,this time finding himself assignedto the 82nd Airborne. That stintwould take him to Berlin, where hehad the opportunity to become oneof Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s honorguards — a duty he counts as one ofhis proudest moments.

It is believed that Kimble was theonly soldier to serve in both the 101stand 82nd Airborne divisions, and heis believed to be the only survivingmember of the Screaming Eagles.During his six years in the army, in-cluding his training and post-war

demonstrations, he completed 64jumps.

Post-military life brought himback to Colorado, where in 1967, hemoved to the Montrose region, as heworked in concrete on the construc-tion of the Crystal Dam. Montrosehas been his home since.

Service to their country has been acommon thread in Kimble's off-spring, as well. Two grandsonsserved in Operation Desert Storm,and Kimble's eyes twinkle when heshares the story of a great-greatgrandson who is serving inAfghanistan, for he, too, wants to bea paratrooper.

Today,the decorated veteran is stillable to live alone with occasional as-sistance from good friends and sen-ior services. His loyal friend, Geron-imo — a large, mixed-breed dog —and cats fill his quiet and humble liv-ing space.


Gary Johnston holds a Nazi flag captured by James 'Chief' Kimble's unit during aWorld War II battle as Kimble and Johnston's wife Nancy watch.


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