Happy Birthday Don Lamoureus (DHS ’75): Bethel, MN

Happy Birthday Deb Striker Kubela: (DHS ’74): Wahpeton, ND

 

Reply from Lee Stickland (’64):Dickinson, ND

GARY:

THANK YOU so much for all the memories that YOU have communicated to Dunseith class members !

YOUR faithfulness, perseverance, editing and always-meaningful contribution is a gift from YOU to be

appreciated by each of US.  LEE     s      12-28-2014

Thank you Lee for the nice compliment. It is my pleasure.

Gary

 

Cebu, Philippines

 

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Blog (223) posted on September 15, 2008

 

From Sandra Zeiler Vandal (62):
Note: Sandra’s parents are Arnold & Lorna (Casavant) Zeiler

Hi Gary,

Had a great ten days with the folks.  We brought them back to ND Fri.   Mom went to Dunseith her Junior & Senior year.

and stayed with the Ole Evans family.  She became good friends with Helen Evans and they remain in touch.  When the folks come to visit, we get together for lunch or coffee.  Rodney Evans, wife Helen (Vandal) & Helen McCrossan were out this past week.  So, it’s a nice family gathering.  Mom enjoyed the time spent with the Evans

family. They had a dairy farm, and helped with that.  Dad met her sometime in those two years, and the rest is history.         Thanks, Sandra

 

From Vickie Hiatt LaFontaiane (73): 

Good morning all,  I have so enjoyed reading Florence Hiatt Dahls stories of uncle Harry.  I was born 9-30-55 and I remember dad saying that uncle Harry went to my crib and said it won’t be long and I’ll have you laughing.  Well he died 15 days later.  I know by the stories my dad loved him very much.  As far as grandma Margie and all of her baking WHAT ABOUT THE SUGAR COOKIES they were the best with coffee.  As far back as I can remember I would sit on grandpa willies lap and dip those cookies in his coffee.  Of course most of the cookie went in the coffee, so at the end he would drink his cofffee of the top. That is probably why I drink a pot or more of coffee daily.  I also have fond memories of is pipe and of course is dog sheep.  To David Slyter Lets not forget how much grandma margie appreciated Chad and all his hard work,She thought your son was pretty special kid. Vickie Hiatt LaFontaine ” 73″

 

From Keith Pladson (66): 

Gary,

Just a general comment.  I am continuously amazed at all of the inter-relatedness of different families in and around Dunseith/the Turtle Mountains.  Without this blog that you have put together, Gary, I would not have known of most of them.  Like you Gary, I have lived away from the Dunseith/Bottineau/Turtle Mountain area all of my adult life.  Unlike you, I have not kept as closely connected to my past as you have yours.  Thus, I keep finding myself going something like “…oh, so that’s the connection…”
Two that effect me personally come to mind.  I now know I am related to Bev Morinville Azure.  I would not have known that without her input on shingles and her reference to “her” cousin Jean Pladson.  Jean is also a cousin to me through her marriage to Duane Pladson (my Dad’s first cousin).  Likewise, I now also know I am related to Vickie Metcalfe.  She mentioned her connection to Sallie Knutson, daughter of Mary and Leroy (Bud) Knutson.  I am a cousin to both Mary (on my Mom’s side) and Bud (on my Dad side).  Facinating stuff.  (I should point out that some of these cousins of mine I refer to are of those “once removed” types, but never-the-less we are related.)

Also, to Dale Pritchard (another cousin), I sure hope hurricane Ike didn’t get you too bad.  Like you, we live in a hurricane prone area here in Virginia.  Fortunately we live several miles in from the coast so have a pretty good buffer zone to protect us from much of the wrath of the storms.  However, when we bought our current home (seventeen years ago) we wanted water front property so we bought a home on Aquia Creek which is a tributary to the Potomac River, which in turn is a tributary to the Cheasapeake Bay.  It is all tidal water so we can be and have been directly effected by the swells associated with hurricanes off the East Coast.  Twice in the past seventeen years we have had hurricanes that came in near the mouth of the Cheasapeake Bay (1996 and 2005) and thus they pushed a lot of water back up through the entire system and we could only watch and wait and hope and pray that the water would stop rising before it got to our house.  We’ve been lucky.  Both times it stopped before reaching our house – though it wouldn’t have taken much more in either case.  Both times the water level did rise about 6 – 7 feet and did flood many other homes in our development that lie lower than ours.  Unfortunately the last one in 2005 [Izzabell (sp?)] knocked out our power for four days.  Fortunately I have a generator and was able to produce enough power to run some lights, refrigerators, etc. for not only ourselves but for the next door neighbors on both side of us as well.  So good luck with Ike, Dale — I know what you face.
Keith

P.S.  Thanks again Gary for what you have going here.

Keith, I also share Jean Pladson as a first cousin with the Morinville’s.  Jean’s mother Olga Hanson Haseldahl was my dads sister. Jean’s dad, Bert Hanson, was a brother the the Morinville’s mother, Frances.

 

From Dick Johnson (68): 

Gary and Friends,

I sent this candid story of Carroll Carlson to Vickie and she thought it

might be of interest to the rest of the readers. I need to apologize for
a few ‘off color’ words but this was our old buddy and that was how he
told it. Thanks Gary!

Dick

 

I THINK OTHERS WOULD BE INTERESTED IN  THIS AS WELL.  VICKIE

Vickie,

I will try to fill the gaps with some of Carroll’s stories. The
story started out that they had traveled for quite a ways one day
and found a house where they decided to rest for the night. Two of
their crew went to the upstairs to sleep. Carroll and another guy
were on the main floor and one or two more were in the basement, One
guy stayed outside to guard the 105 tracked howitzer. These units
were nicknamed ‘Priests’ because the protective shield around the
top resembled a priests collar. They had just gone to sleep when
they heard a low flying plane go over. Then Carroll said he could
hear it coming back and he knew they were about to be shot up or
bombed. He said he ran for the basement door just as the bomb hit
and it blew him into the basement. There was a stone wall down the
center of the house all the way to the roof and the bomb actually
exploded when it hit the top of that wall or he thinks they would
all have been blown to bits! If I remember correctly, Carroll said
that Lewis was hurt and one guy was either killed or had his arm
blown off. It seems to me he said the guy watching the ‘Priest’ was
killed, but I’m not sure on that. The guys upstairs were full of
wood splinters and got Purple Heart medals, but not Carroll. He said
when he landed in the cellar he landed on a sleeping GI and the guy
woke up and started fighting with Carroll for a few seconds until he
realized who it was! Carroll had his little sly laugh when he said,
” The son of a bitch wanted to fight me, heh, heh,heh”! He came over
to our place many times to watch my WWII documentaries. We usually
had him come for supper first and then watch war history. He just
loved it and commented continually about what was right or wrong in
the film. One night I showed a film on Normandy. The narrator said,
“On Omaha Beach there was little opposition and rather flat
terrain”. Carroll sat up on the couch and said, “That dumb bastard
doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about, there was a 100 foot
cliff we had to climb and the Germans were dropping grenades on us
from the top, killing guys on the ropes”! Just a short while later,
the narrator said, “Farther down on Omaha, men were killed by the
hundreds, as they tried desperately  to scale a 90 foot  cliff
directly into a well fortified  German  stronghold”!  Carroll said,
“There  g–d–it’!  He knew the road signs as they passed the camera
and would comment on what happened at most of the places. It was
very interesting to me, as I am interested in history of all kinds
and especially WWII. Carroll gave me a first hand account that was
fantastic. Our WWII vets are leaving us now at a rate of something
like 1500 per day, so these first hand stories will soon be gone!
I’m sure glad Carroll shared as many of them with me as he did. He
was quite a guy!

Dick

 

Folks, I was very absent minded yesterday and totally forgot to include part 8 of Carroll’s Traveling Years by Vickie.  There are 13 parts in all.  Gary

(Part 8) CARROLL CARLSON’S TRAVELING  YEARS, BY VICKIE METCALFE (70):

D-Day

On June  1, 1944. Carroll and his crew boarded a  LCT Landing Craft ..  Batteries One,  Two, and Three were boarded on one landing craft. and Carroll’s Battery Number four,  along with five and six were loaded on another landing craft.    Three tanks, three jeeps and the men rode  across  the English Channel on the LCT’s.

……..They waited.
The LCT’s  traveled the English Channel to the French Coast…….

and waited . ……

Then, they took their role in  D-Day.   The six  batteries fired from the landing crafts over the other ships onto the beach.

 

The  LCT’s then pulled back….. and waited, “there was dust and smoke and  we couldn’t’ see anything”.   After a time the LCT’s landed.
“The dead, were  laying all over Omaha Beach.'”    “The Medic Section was good. There were  two or three medics assigned to each battery, they did anything they could to help the living.  The dead were left.  No one  bothered the dead.   Another unit, from the back ,  would come up later,  ” a grave registration outfit who would pick  up the dead, identify and bury them.”

While in Normandy, Carroll’s Battery was attached to the 16th infantry of the First . Division.   Carroll’s unit was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation.

Carroll’s Traveling Years will Continue with part 9 tomorrow:

Folks, I talked to Patty Boguslawski Gottbreht (65) today and she said, she and a lot of her Allard cousins hiked up to Butte Saint Paul last week.  She said it was a beautiful day and they really had a lot of fun doing it.  She said Carol Allard (65) was home visiting and joined them on the hike.  This is a picture that Kenny Nerpel (65) provided last year.  That is Kenny standing in the picture.  Gary