At about 2 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 18, 2021), my friend, Rick Maixner, and I poured a couple ofshots from the bottle of cognac he keeps stashed at the Sunset Nursing Home in Mandan, N.D., and toasted the fact we are still here, 50 years after we walked off the gangplank of the USS Oriskany, CVA-34, at the Alameda (Calif.) Naval …
It turns out that I’m one in a million. Well actually, one in about 840,000 so far. That’s the approximately number of military veterans like myself who have volunteered for the Million Veteran Program or MVP. The goal is to enroll at least a million veterans. It’s a national medical research effort funded by the Veterans Administration to learn how …
My eyes fluttered awake to the early-morning coos of mourning doves and a halo of light from the window. “Oh, it’s Memorial Day,” I remembered from somewhere in my cavernous REM slumber. I creaked to the cold kitchen in a season in which it’s too warm to run the furnace and too cold for my bones. I was desperate for …
At noon Friday, July 10, 2020, on a somber hillside south of Mandan, N.D., a lone bugler will blow Taps, and a squad of American Veterans will fire a 21-gun salute to 1st Sgt. Hubert Garland Crook, U.S. Army (retired) as his cremated ashes are laid under a white marble headstone, joining thousands of his fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and …
I’ll pause on this Memorial Day to remember my namesake, U.S. Navy Aviation Machinists Mate First Class Carlyle James Fuglie. He was my dad’s “big brother,” although only about 15 months separated them. They joined the Navy together in the spring of 1942, just a few months after the U.S. entered World War II in response to the Japanese attack …
After the Iranian attack on an Iraqi air base earlier this month we were told by President Trump that there were no injuries. However, this week, it turns out what the commander in chief told the U.S. was false. The numbered of injured was confirmed Friday to be 34. Seventeen of them have returned to duty. Eight have been returned …
I wrote this a year ago today. I wish I could take my father-in-law, Garland Crook, fishing today. Unfortunately, his age caught up with him in the past year, and he’s now a resident of Miller Pointe Nursing home in Mandan, N.D., where at 6:30 tonight we’ll have a special program, with music and speeches and remembrances, to celebrate the …
As I walked my dog by the Catholic cemetery that borders my condo Monday morning, I heard echoes of Taps ring through the air and reflected on the dead who were being honored this past Memorial Day Weekend — men and women who gave their lives in service to our country and its highest ideals. How do we honor the …
This blog was originally posted on Unheralded.fish’s Facebook page Monday. Ah, Veterans Day. It did not exist by that name the day I was born. But has every day since. That’s my slim contribution. Along with being a No. 19 draft choice in the Vietnam lottery. The closest I have come to winning a lottery. Then the Paris Peace Accord …
This story in our World War I Centennial series is written by Dr. Gordon L. Iseminger, who teaches European history at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. His recent research is on the German-Russians of North Dakota’s McIntosh County during World War I. By Gordon Iseminger Known first as the Great War, World War I broke out in 1914. …
This story in our World War I Centennial series is written by Joseph T. Stuart, Ph.D., associate professor of history at the University of Mary in Bismarck. By Joseph T. Stuart Although the U.S. did not enter the Great War until 1917, a number of Bismarck residents left to serve in the conflict before then, fighting alongside British troops or as …
Bob and I sat, our motorcycles idle, among a quiet group of veterans, waiting for stragglers. But no one came late. Most of us had been there early enough to stretch our legs. A few of us smoked. The veil of fog faded away from the black and green hues of the Black Hills. It looked like rain. Hell, it …
Today’s story in our World War I Centennial series is written by Darrell Dorgan, a documentary film producer from Bismarck who is an Emmy-nominated and award-winning journalist and chairs the North Dakota World War I Centennial Commission. By Darrell Dorgan When I was a youngster growing up in Regent, N.D., there was an elderly World War I veteran who, weather …
In 2017, the National World War I Centennial Commission asked North Dakota to establish a State World War I Centennial Commission here. All but two of the 50 states had functioning commissions, but North Dakota and South Dakota did not. Darrell Dorgan, a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission, was asked to serve as coordinator. As a member of the …
On Memorial Day, flowers and flags are plentiful at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, located 6.5 miles south of Mandan on state Highway 1806 on a 35-acre tract of land in the southwest corner of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. The cemetery, established by an act of the 1989 North Dakota Legislative Assembly, opened in July 1992.
OIL TO THE RESCUE A pair of Bismarck oil men, new to North Dakota and chasing the state’s first small oil boom, likely made the deal of their life in early 1952, acquiring almost the entire 127-acre tract of Highland Acres, complete with partially constructed streets, water mains, a couple of dozen good residents and the potential to earn a …
MOVING IN Here are the first 21 residents of Highland Acres, gleaned from the files of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Notice they are all just men’s names, the “heads of households.” We assume they all had wives as well. And probably children. I don’t have the dates of the purchase of each of these homes, but I’m …
1948: BUILDING HIGHLAND ACRES BEGINS The Bismarck Tribune reported in April 1948 that “Twelve houses are under construction in Highland Acres, the addition on the western edge of the city owned by the Bismarck Veterans Homeowners Cooperative Association.” The paper said that the housing co-op had also contracted for construction of nine additional homes. Looking over the building plans for …
FINDING A NAME: HOW WE BECAME HIGHLAND ACRES The new development needed a name. Bismarck Tribune editor Ken Simons wrote a story for his paper announcing a contest would be held to name the subdivision and the streets within it. Entries were to be submitted to the committee, with an entry deadline of Aug. 12, 1946. On Aug.t 22, the …
HIGHLAND ACRES AND THE BISMARCK VETERANS HOMEOWNERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION — PRODUCTS OF A PERFECT STORM Highland Acres Addition to the city of Bismarck, was a housing subdivision developed cooperatively by a group of returning World War II veterans in the 1940s and 1950s. Its success led to the subsequent development of nearby Highland Acres Second and Third Additions and Torrance …
Friends know I enjoy used bookstores. There are many within easy driving distance of our place in Bloomington, Minn. I recently purchased the above book for $1.50 at a Salvation Army resale outlet near the place that sells me Starbucks Italian Bold coffee. “What Did You Do In the War, Daddy?” was self-published by Gordon C. Krantz, who like Dorette …
The communities of Bowman County, North Dakota, hold a gathering at the Bowman High School every year celebrating Veterans Day. This year, they chose to honor my father, Garland Crook, who is now 93. We traveled there Thursday. Sadly, he was not feeling strong enough to attend. He would have seen many of his buddies there. In fact, one even …
“Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward.” — Ajahn Chah My father is spending the day with us and while I deadheaded the daylilies, he contentedly read the morning paper on the back patio. Can you tell I come from a line of readers? My delight this morning was in finding a new …
When I was an undergraduate, I had this poster on a wall in my first apartment. While I’m through and through from a military family, it reveals much about me. My poster is long gone, but it still rings true for me, although Mary Mother of God, why can’t our country seem to find enough money to pay our service …
I took it upon myself to drive the main roads in Dilworth, Minn., Moorhead and Fargo on Memorial Day weekend. I was pleased to see that each city had placed flags in honor of our fallen soldiers. It was also very heartening to see the many veterans and civic organizations providing programs to honor the warriors. It prompted me to …
On Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, Donald J. Trump sank even lower than anyone could expect. On a day when we pay homage to those veterans who gave their lives for their country, who paid the ultimate price to preserve our freedoms, that man turned it into a political Trump message He who did not serve his country and …
Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson paid his respects Monday at Alexandria National Cemetery, where 45 percent of the graves mark the last resting place of unknown soldiers from the Civil War.
The last battle of World War II was fought 70 years ago next month, but for tens of thousands of American servicemen — and women — the battles continued at home. Only then, the soldiers didn’t have their buddies next to them in the foxhole. This war — waged with horrible memories, nightmares and survivor’s guilt — had to be fought …