Salvador "Sal" Trujillo | Tigard

Salvador "Sal" Trujillo from Tigard, was with five Marines that went on night patrol in Iraq in 2006. They were riding in a Bradley fighting vehicle when an IED detonated beneath them. Doused in diesel from the fuel tanks exploding and set aflame, three of them were injured seriously. Not realizing how badly he was injured or burnt, Trujillo leaped into action to help save his buddy’s’ lives. He suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body, lost two fingers and had to undergo massive reconstructive surgeries. For his brave actions that night, Trujillo was awarded the Chehalem Valley Sportsman Club’s George Washington Patriot award. 

Scott Anderson | Canby

Chief Warrant Officer Scott Anderson served in the 158th Aviation Regiment in Balad, Iraq. When the Canby resident was not using his military skills as a medevac pilot, he was able to apply his civilian skills as a magician to help people in a different way. Anderson worked through translators to perform magic shows for groups of Iraqi children during base-hosted events. He also worked with parents to entertain children under the care of the hospital there with his illusions. His magic not only provided an outlet for him, it also broke the ice and formed relationships with Iraqis around the base.

Jacob Jones | Prairie City

Sgt. Jacob Jones, originally from Prairie City, was an infantryman in the Army. He was patrolling the streets of Mosul wearing 50 pounds of gear and his rifle, searching for insurgents, sometimes clearing an intersection of the rubble from a suicide bomber. The sniper’s bullet hit him in the left shoulder and he never saw it coming. That bullet ended his four-year military career, earning him a Purple Heart and an honorable discharge. "Iraq is a dangerous place. It is hard to distinguish the good from the bad there. I am just really proud to have served my country in this time of hostility and war," Jones said. "It is hard to see exactly how good life is until everything is taken away."

Dillon Bergstad | North Bend

August 27, 2007 is a day 24-year old Army Specialist Dillon Bergstad of North Bend will never forget. Driving in the second vehicle of a convoy in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, Bergstad and his unit were ambushed. As many as 30 enemy fighters, some only 10 feet away, attacked his convoy. While fighting off the ambush, Bergstad was thrown from his turret three times. The first time his truck was hit by an RPG. The second time he was shot through the right bicep with an armor piercing incendiary round. The third time his vehicle was struck again with another RPG. Bergstad continued to get back up and return fire. As a result, the enemy RPG team was killed and several machine gun positions suppressed. Dillon earned the Silver Star for his actions that day. "I don’t think I did anything more outstanding than anyone else." Bergstad said of his award. "I would trade 10 of these medals to get PFC Thomas Wilson back who died that day," Bergstad said. Thomas was Dillon’s close friend.

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Michelle Ring | McMinnville

Army Specialist Michelle Ring was deployed to Bagdad with the 92nd Military Police Battalion from Fort Benning. Ring attended school in McMinnville before she enlisted into the Army. Her goal was to obtain a college degree and become a U.S. Marshall. In July of 2007, Michelle was on guard duty when her base at Camp Liberty was hit with mortar rounds. The mother of two was unable to avoid the flying shrapnel and was killed. At her memorial, Ring was promoted posthumously to the rank of corporal. Her family was also presented with her Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Good Conduct Medal. Specialist Michelle Ring became the first woman with ties to Oregon to be killed in Iraq.

Bob Shano | Scappoose

Vietnam Vet and business owner, Bob Shano, felt there was something he could do to help a new crop of young soldiers heading over to Iraq. That help came in the form of joining them. In his fifties and with already 22 total years of military service, it was a little difficult convincing recruiters to take him seriously. Once they did, Shano began an extensive battery of medical exams to ensure his fitness level was on par with the military standards. His experience training young paintballers seems to have transposed into a fatherly devotion to the next generation of real infantrymen. He explained that he wants to bring guys back from Iraq in one piece, so they will be around for their children. "I just feel like they need some older guys," said Shano. "I can do something to help."

Kent G. Solheim | Oregon City

In July of 2007, Capt. Kent Solheim’s team "fast-roped" from hovering helicopters into Karbala, Iraq and set up their positions. His team took enemy fire from three sides with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s throughout the 40-minute mission to capture the leader of the Shiite militia. At one point, Solheim charged an insurgent with an RPG and killed him. Later he fatally shot an armed Maddhi fighter, but as the terrorist fell, he fired a burst from his AK-47 which wounded Solheim in the legs and back. After having his right leg amputated, Solheim continued to serve as a Major at the Special War Training Group On December 12, 2008, Kent received the Silver Star, the nation's third highest award for combat valor, along with fellow Oregonian, Sgt. Gabriel Reynolds (next story). The ceremony was the largest in of its kind since the Vietnam War.

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Gabriel Reynolds | Lake Oswego

Sgt. Gabriel Reynolds’ Special Forces detachment came under intense enemy machine gun fire from Afghan Insurgents while conducting operations in the Khas Oruzgan District in November of 2007. During three very intense firefights, Reynolds is credited with continually engaging the enemy with suppressing gunfire that had trapped American soldiers during the ambush. This would eventually allow the U.S. troops to escape. Reynolds would later destroy a machine gun emplacement and RPG positions. He then dismounted his disabled vehicle while under immense gunfire, and set up a mortar tube and fired at enemy positions.

Shane Bohnenkamp | Pilot Rock

While Shane Bohnenkamp was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 he began writing poems from the field which captured the essence of soldiers serving their country in a hostile environment. One such poem titled, Afghanistan – The Guardian, was written in memory of his battle buddy, SSG. Michel Estes:

                     Afghanistan – The Guardian

A solider standing at the gates of heaven when the angel guarding the gate asks,

"Why do you think you should enter into heaven?"

Without hesitation the soldier replied, "I don't wish to enter into heaven."

The angel, shocked on such a fast and yet quick answer, asked, "Why don't you wish to enter onto heaven?"

"For on earth I have guarded the weak and innocent, protected the land of the free, and when others countries needed I went to their aid to keep evil at bay."

"Know that my time has come and called my name. I will stand here so that the innocent and weak, and those from the land of the free, can enter into heaven without the threat of evil and have no more fear."

The angel, in disbelief and with a tear running down his face, said in a thunderous voice,

"Darkness and evil beware, for a new guardian of heaven has come."

"Soldier, take up your post and stand ready to carry on your duties here in heaven, as you would on earth."

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Remembering The Legacy of Those Lost

Memorial Day is at once a day to honor the fallen in our nation’s wars and the unofficial start of the summer season when we fire up the barbecues and enjoy our rivers, lakes and beaches.

Many veterans and military families voice frustration at this dichotomy and the dilution of Memorial Day. In the lead up to the last Monday in May, there will be articles, editorial cartoons, blog posts and twitter feeds urging us all to remember the real meaning of Memorial Day.

I will join them in highlighting the true cost of war – a cost far beyond dollars and cents. In Iraq and Afghanistan alone, we have lost over 6,000 of America’s best men and women. We owe them and their families a debt that can never be repaid.

But I also worry that our pointed effort on Memorial Day to remember the legacy of those lost will not bridge the civilian-military cultural divide. World War II was fought by 10 percent of our citizens, affecting a large segment of the population. Today, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fought by less than 1 percent of our population.

Even for those of us who work closely with veterans, it is disconcertingly easy to go about our everyday lives, forgetting that thousands are still deployed overseas in harm’s way. We must all go beyond a day and recommit to building the critical relationship between our citizens, military families and veterans.

Sharing our stories and experiences is not always easy, but it is essential as we ramp up and sustain community support for our veterans. Ultimately, our efforts are not simply for the troops. The bond between a nation and its veterans is about our way of life that the military defends and that we all actively create and cherish: a democratic nation, full of freedom, with justice and opportunity for all.

As we honor the fallen on Memorial Day this year… let us take to heart the symbolism in the flag code. The flag will be flown half-mast from sunrise until noon when it will then be flown at the peak until sunset. Half-mast to honor all those who have given their lives in the service of our nation and then flown high to show that the nation they defended lives on.

Continue to share the stories of your service and most importantly share the stories of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you for all of your support for our veterans and God Bless all those still serving overseas.

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Reprinted with permission from Albany Tribune

The U.S. Navy will name the next San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship the USS Portland, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in April.

"Oregon has a long history with the U.S. Navy going back to the construction of hundreds of World War II Liberty and Victory ships at three Portland-area shipyards," Wyden said. "I want to thank Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus for naming a ship for Oregon’s largest city. It is an honor for the City of Portland and for all Oregonians."

Construction of the ship began in August 2011 in Newport, Va. According to the Navy, when it is completed and delivered to the Navy in the summer of 2017, it will be the only ship in the current fleet named for a location in Oregon. Landing Platform Dock ships are named for major American cities. Designated LPD 27, the USS Portland will be the third Navy ship to bear the name.

In announcing the naming of the USS Portland, Secretary Mabus said, "I appreciate the many contributions to our Navy and Marine Corps team that have been made by the people of Portland and the state of Oregon. The two previous ships to bear the name Portland distinguished themselves in service to our nation and I fully expect the future USS Portland will continue that proud tradition whether delivering humanitarian assistance or the full range of combat capability for many decades to come."

The USS Portland will support amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions through the first half of the 21st century. It will be used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies using different types of craft, including, the Navy said, "air cushion or conventional landing craft or Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

"This is a great honor for our state and the many Oregonians who have served and sacrificed for our country," said Governor John Kitzhaber. "The USS Portland and its crew will always be welcome in Oregon, and I look forward to the chance to come aboard."

USS Portland

is part of a class of Landing Platform Dock ships and is being constructed by Huntington Ingalls Industries with Raytheon Systems Corporation and Intergraph Corporation. It will be 684 feet in length, have a beam length of 105 feet and will be capable of operating at 22 knots. It is expected to be delivered in summer 2017.

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By Mike Allegre

Three days after the Iraq war had begun, an Oregon soldier would become involved it what’s been called one of the darkest early incidents of that war. It would cost him his life.

Sgt. Donald R. Walters, a former Salem resident, would become the first Oregonian killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Walters grew up in Colorado where his father, Norman Walters, was a trombone player at the Air Force Academy. The family later moved to Salem in 1981.

Walters, 33, was a member of the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas, that was ambushed in southern Iraq on March 23, 2003. When the story was initially reported, it was suggested that fellow unit member, Pvt. Jessica Lynch, of Palestine, W.Va., was eventually taken prisoner only after a prolonged battle in which she was shot and stabbed.

Walters’s fellow soldiers had maintained it was he who was killed after mounting a lone stand against the Iraqis who ambushed their convoy of maintenance vehicles near Nasiriyah. It was determined later by military investigators that the 1988 North Salem High School graduate had been executed. In all, 11 soldiers were killed and six captured in the ambush.

Later it was learned that Lynch’s rifle had jammed and her injuries were caused when her truck collided with another vehicle as the convoy came under attack. When the international media frenzy that proclaimed her a hero had subsided, Lynch came forward and said she did not fire a shot during the ambush.

Four years following Walters death, Lynch maintained before Congress, despite the continued media publicity, that Walters was a hero that day.

"I am still confused over how they chose to lie and try to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were legendary," Lynch said. "Sgt. Donald Walters… actually did fight 'til the very end."

Initially, the Army had posthumously awarded Walters the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

In May 2004, one year after he was buried, the Army honored Walters with the Silver Star -- the U.S. military’s third-highest decoration for valor. During a ceremony at Fort Leavenworth (Kan.) National Cemetery, where Walters is buried, he also was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal by Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, once the commanding general of the Army’s V Corps in Iraq. Wallace presented the medals to Walters’ widow, Stacie, and his mother, Arlene.

Wallace said Walters displayed a "courage that reflected his gallantry to serve his country and fellow soldiers caught in the ambush."

Sergeant Walters had served in the Army on and off since 1989, including during the 1991 Gulf War. His father, Norman Walters, said his son was changed by his experience guarding Iraqi prisoners in 1991. "He was nervous and suffered from terrible thoughts and nightmares. He didn’t want to go," his father said. "But he didn’t have a choice. He had his orders and he felt it was his duty."

Walters left the Army in 1992 and joined the Reserves but to give his family greater stability, Walters re-enlisted in 2002. He left for Kuwait in February 2003.

Walters loved to fish. He and his wife Stacie spent countless days on fishing trips. Before he left for Iraq the second time, Walters penned a short children’s book, My Very Special Fishing Trip, which recounted his first fishing trip with his father. After his death, his friends and family arranged for the book to be illustrated and printed for those who knew him.

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This past March when Tuition Assistance (TA) funding was abruptly eliminated due to the sequestration budget cuts within the Department of Defense, many veterans and service members who use the program to pay for college scrambled for alternate ways to continue their education.

Fortunately, on March 21st, in response to the overwhelming reaction of those impacted, Congress passed the new 2013 federal spending bill HR 933, which instructed the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps to restart their TA programs. It also prohibited the Navy, which never stopped TA, from reducing the level of benefits until the end of the fiscal year. Even though the Coast Guard, which falls under the Homeland Security Department, was not mandated to restart their program through HR 933, officials also decided to reinstate TA benefits until the end of the fiscal year.

HR 933 did help fix the immediate funding issues with Tuition Assistance, but with the end of this fiscal year approaching, it appears to only be a band-aide on a much larger issue. The new budget bill does not erase the $43 billion in spending cuts for the Department of Defense this year. Congress also did not provide the additional funding to DoD’s budget for Tuition Assistance, leaving the service branches needing to cut in other areas in order to continuing paying for the program.

The forecasted budgets for all of the service branches indicate that TA will be back in 2014, however, there does seem to be a lot of discussion about possible changes in the future to the benefit. An article written for the Air Force Times by Rick Maze, reported that eligibility rules may be tightened to stretch available funding. Many of the service branches are pushing to return to the pre-2000 model, under which the services paid 75 percent of tuition and troops kicked in the other 25 percent. The rationale behind that idea is not only to stretch the program’s funding, but also to force troops to put some "skin in the game" and give them more of an incentive to complete their courses.

The Tuition Assistance program is a military benefit that definitely makes an impact with our service men and women. It provides education opportunities while in the Armed Forces and helps prepare service members for transition back into civilian life after service.

With uncertainty surrounding the availability of funding for many worthy programs and benefits, veterans and service members are encouraged to contact the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs to explore other earned veteran education benefits.

Fortunately, on March 21st, in response to the overwhelming reaction of those impacted, Congress passed the new 2013 federal spending bill HR 933, which instructed the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps to restart their TA programs. It also prohibited the Navy, which never stopped TA, from reducing the level of benefits until the end of the fiscal year. Even though the Coast Guard, which falls under the Homeland Security Department, was not mandated to restart their program through HR 933, officials also decided to reinstate TA benefits until the end of the fiscal year.

HR 933 did help fix the immediate funding issues with Tuition Assistance, but with the end of this fiscal year approaching, it appears to only be a band-aide on a much larger issue. The new budget bill does not erase the $43 billion in spending cuts for the Department of Defense this year. Congress also did not provide the additional funding to DoD’s budget for Tuition Assistance, leaving the service branches needing to cut in other areas in order to continuing paying for the program.

The forecasted budgets for all of the service branches indicate that TA will be back in 2014, however, there does seem to be a lot of discussion about possible changes in the future to the benefit. An article written for the Air Force Times by Rick Maze, reported that eligibility rules may be tightened to stretch available funding. Many of the service branches are pushing to return to the pre-2000 model, under which the services paid 75 percent of tuition and troops kicked in the other 25 percent. The rationale behind that idea is not only to stretch the program’s funding, but also to force troops to put some "skin in the game" and give them more of an incentive to complete their courses.

The Tuition Assistance program is a military benefit that definitely makes an impact with our service men and women. It provides education opportunities while in the Armed Forces and helps prepare service members for transition back into civilian life after service.

With uncertainty surrounding the availability of funding for many worthy programs and benefits, veterans and service members are encouraged to contact the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs to explore other earned veteran education benefits.

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The Korean War has been called a war that never really ended and left the Korean peninsula divided in 1953 after more than two million Koreans died, and thousands of families were separated. It created the world’s most heavily fortified border and also drew the alliances that exist today.

In just over three years of fighting, more than 33,600 Americans were killed in battle and nearly 8,200 were missing in action. Oregon lost 298 military members in Korea.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement of 1953, the Korean War Veterans of America, Dept. of Oregon, and the Oregon Trail Chapter, will be hosting a program, Saturday, July 27, at 9:30 a.m. The backdrop will be the Oregon Korean War Memorial in Wilsonville.

The event coordinator, Don Cohen, and Oregon Trail Chapter President Chuck Lusardi said this anniversary is being commemorated nationwide.

"We are working diligently to organize this major event which we endeavor to honor these war’s veterans while paying respect to all military personnel that have served and continue to serve. For many, this may be our last big hoorah," Lusardi said.

Along with support from local military and other organizations, Lusardi said several guest speakers will address the large crowd expected, including Korean War veterans, South Korean officials, military and civic leaders. Oregon’s 234th Army Band will provide ceremonial music.

The memorial is located off Interstate 5 at exit 283, about 10 miles south of Portland, then follow the signs.

For more information contact Lusardi at
503-628-1847 or luallenrd6@gmail.com.

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By Dick Mason / Reprinted by permission from The LaGrande Observer

LA GRANDE — Fred Hill of La Grande was heartened by what he saw and disheartened by what he did not see in Manila 68 years ago.

Hill, then a U.S. Army Air Corps photographer and previously a member of Oregon’s 123rd Observation Squadron, was in Manila on a three-day pass in March 1945. The Philippines had recently been freed by the United States from three years of a brutal Japanese occupation, following a bloody month-long battle.

"You never saw such happy people," Hill said. Manila, known as "Pearl of the Orient" prior to World War II, was not even a shell of her former self. Hill said Filipinos were greeting all American soldiers as liberators.

"They just opened their arms. They were so welcoming," he said.

Their freedom had come at a steep price — more than 100,000 civilians had died in the battle of Manila. Bombing had erased many homes and left thousands of others without roofs.

"It was unbelievable, I was shocked," Hill said.

Today, the Filipino government wants to view what Hill saw 68 years ago. He recently received a request from the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office in the Philippines for prints of some of the 78 photos of Manila he took and collected in March 1945. Hill has sent 51 of the Manila photos to the Filipino government.

The photos show people bathing and washing at street corner fire hydrants because they had no running water. Houses had been gutted by bombs and people released from Japanese-run prisons had nowhere to sleep but except on outdoor cots.

Hill, who grew up in Elgin, was with an Army Air Corps photo reconnaissance unit which processed pictures taken by crews on reconnaissance planes that returned from flights over islands occupied by the Japanese.

Hill’s unit, the 17th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, was in the Philippines island of Mindoro, about 400 miles southwest of Manila when he asked his commander for permission to visit the nation’s capital on a three-day pass. Hill’s commander granted him and friend Dick Baxter a "wild cat pass," but with a good-natured warning.

"He told me that he knew where we were, but if I got into trouble ‘I never heard of you,’" Hill said. "Neither Dick nor I drank or smoked, so he had little to be concerned about."

Hill and Baxter had nowhere to stay when they arrived in Manila but were taken in by the family of an assistant editor of the Manila Post who provided a dinner to the two soldiers.

"They hosted us royally with a meal and entertainment," Hill said.

The family did not have overnight accommodations for the two men but directed them to an abandoned prison where they slept each night in relative comfort on cots.

The black and white photos Hill snapped in Manila are among more than a thousand he took while in the South Pacific during World War II. More than 50 of Hill’s WWII photographs have been published in history books.

Hill said when he visited Manila in 1945 he felt safe even though the fighting had ended only about a week earlier. The photographer admits he had no idea in 1945 that the photos he was taking in Manila would be valued today by the Philippines’ government.

"Heavens, no," he said. "I went there just because I wanted to show my family (later via photographs) what was going on."

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When you put together military aviators from days gone by, most often you will get a history lesson with some friendly banter only pilots tend to toss around. In The Dalles, a group of aviators has been meeting weekly since 1994. Most are in their 80s and 90s and served their time in World War II, Korea or Vietnam.

It began at a local restaurant with a handful of guys brought together by the late Walt Erickson. The meetings have moved several times and eventually landed at the Oregon Veterans Home. This group of veterans shares plenty of laughter, camaraderie and personal experiences each Thursday.

Larry Bellarts lives in Boring Oregon and travels up the Gorge to each meeting. Bellarts was a B-17 pilot who flew 30 missions in World War II and he shares the sentiments of many of the High Flyers.

"If I can make it, I won’t miss being here with these guys. It’s a tradition," he said.

Now 90, and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Bellarts withstood the dangers of combat missions in a B-17, C-46 cargo planes in Korea and C-130s in Vietnam. His story is one of survival following one attack late in the war over Germany by a ME-262 jet that came a little too close. The German pilot had just shot his three wingmen down.

"So, I ordered my tail gunner to shoot him just as he passed by us. He led him well and I saw him, dead in the cockpit as he fell away."

Just across the table is 9th Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber pilot David Childs of The Dalles, another one of the founding group members. He joked, "They didn’t have enough bomber pilots so they asked me to come."

Childs’s painful story has been heard by many of these men. On his 48th and final combat mission he sustained terrible burns as he parachuted from a fiery cockpit after taking ground fire while attacking two German locomotives on Nov. 17, 1944. He bailed out before his plane crashed and hit hard in a few inches of snow. As a POW, a French medical staff treated both of his legs, hands, and face for first and second degree burns at a German field hospital between Luxembourg and the Rhine River.

"I got to the Rhine before Gen. Patton did, which is fitting because we were his flying artillery."

His fellow POWs helped in his recovery at Stalag 4B in Muhlberg, north of Dresden. He was released May 9, 1945, the day after Germany surrendered to the Allies and by mid-June Childs was back home in Arlington.

"That was six months, 26 days and a steak sandwich after I left on my last mission," Childs said.

A loadmaster for four years, flying aboard some of the Air Force’s biggest propeller driven cargo planes in the 1960s, Jerry Meligan, 78, has been a High Flyer for eight years. Living in The Dalles makes it easy. Militarily, he was part of the early delivery of ammunition into Laos in the early-1960s before America’s involvement in Vietnam escalated. Meligan is happy to be one of the first non-pilots to join the group.

"These guys came from all over, from central to western Oregon and Portland. They are a special generation, and they always say, ‘no that was our parents.’ They’re all real gentlemen, educated and I like being around them," Meligan added.

Over the years, the group has numbered between 40 and 50 and have hosted some very wonderful and prominent veterans sharing time together including the late-Rex Barber (Marine pilot who shot down Japanese Admiral Yamamoto) from Culver, Hood River’s former Flying Tiger, the late-Ken Jernstedt, and former WASP Anna Monkiewicz of The Dalles."

"We have about 10 who attend now," Childs said, whose vision is impaired and he can’t drive. "It’s pretty important to me and I miss very few meetings. There aren’t that many of us anymore. And to be still meeting with these fellas for all these years, that’s something."

Since moving to the Home from Keizer more than four years ago, John Sullivan, 94, is always at the table. Injured in an aircraft training accident during the war, "Sully" said he loves "all of the BS."

"We all agree it’s a great time," he said. "Almost every time some guy’s got a story that’s a little better."

These shared memories aren’t just for one or two generations. The Home’s State Liaison Officer, Dallas Swafford, a former active duty and current National Guard soldier, has been there since November 2012. Swafford has attended almost every meeting and is astounded at the camaraderie and friendship these men and other friends have developed.

"For someone from my generation, it’s a humbling experience to have the opportunity to be there and take time to listen to them share their memories and to learn how their experience as veterans shaped who they are now. While I am truly honored to be part of the group," Swafford said, "I find it somewhat sad that fewer people from my generation are able to listen to their experiences and appreciate what they’ve been through and what they’ve sacrificed for the rest of us – making the experience bittersweet for me at times."

"I believe it’s my duty to carry the torch for this bunch of battle buddies so that their stories are not lost. I consider myself a group member, and in some sense a curator of their stories to ensure these memories live on."

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There are thousands of untold stories of the Americans who fought on or near the frontlines and endured their own wartime experiences.

In May 1952, a young U.S. Army soldier from The Dalles, Archie "Sonny" Robertson, Jr., was on the front lines in Korea. He had been in the Army for two years and was three months shy of his 19th birthday. He had recently survived one of the coldest winters in Korea’s history and was with a company of men who were on the move.

In a letter to his parents, Robertson wrote of his life on the front lines.

Dear Folks,

Just a few lines to let you know that everything is fine. (almost rhymes) We moved up to the front early this morning. Got up at 4:00 AM, at breakfast at 4:30 AM & moved out at 5:00 AM. Since then I’ve been on the run & am pretty tired tonight, so should sleep good.

May 13, 1952 10:30 AM

Hi Again!

As you can plainly see, I didn’t get much writing done last night. The mail came in & I delivered it around to the fellas, as our platoon runner hasn’t learned yet where the guys are located. I didn’t get back to the bunker until 9:30 PM so went right to bed.

Yesterday I got all my squads moved into position & pretty well set up. Our company is controlling three peaks. I’ve got one "57" squad on the top of the left peak, one "57" squad on the top of the center peak & the "50" caliber squad about halfway down the finger, on the right flank.

My job will be a little easier now that I’ve got everything situated.

Each morning after breakfast, I have to go around to all the squads in my section & get ammo report, check the weapons, check the men on personal hygiene, let the squad leaders know about any patrols they will cover, how much ammo they will fire as harassing fire, & a few other things that don’t amount to much.

It generally takes about 2 hours to get around to all the squads. Depends on how long I sit & talk.

I sleep in a bunker, about 600 yards down, on the reverse slope. It’s the 4th platoon C.P. bunker, There’s six of us sleeping in here. Lt. Huff, the platoon leader, S.F.C. Langley, the platoon sgt, Cpl Compton, the Mortar Section leader, a platoon runner or messenger, a platoon medic, & myself.

The bunker is about 12’ long, 10’ wide & 7’ high. In it we have 3 double bunks, 4 stools, an oil stove, 1 desk & several shelves. Also one door & an ammo box for a window. It has a wooden floor, made out of ammo boxes. Has 2 dirt walls, 2 log walls, log roof with sandbags on it.

We have a shower right outside our door, hooked up to a nice cold spring. Also have places to heat C-rations & water for washing. It’s really a nice set-up. Hope to stay a long time. I’ll try to draw you a diagram of it [above].

As you can see, it’s a pretty good set-up. Abe Lincoln never had it any better.

Last night was the first time I slept stateside, (without my clothes on) since I’ve been in Korea. I’m eating some crackers with peanut butter& jam. Got a 1 gallon can of peanut butter & a gallon can jam from the mess hall & got lots of crackers in C-rations so gives us something to piece on between meals.

Haven’t had any mail for 3 or 4 days now, expect a letter from Donna Shaw. Well, that about covers everything up until now, so will close.

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