|
|
|
|
|
The Roseburg News-Review---July 5, 2007
There will always be a Fourth of July banquet for US military veterans at Seven Feathers says Cow Creek Tribal Chairwoman Sue Shaffer. Our veterans have earned "ongoing respect for their efforts."
By Paul Craig
CANYONVILLE — It took more than 60 years for Milton Hunt to receive the Purple Heart he earned after taking shrapnel wounds to his back during World War II.
He received treatment in a Guam hospital for five weeks after the attack on his unit. That happened May 20, 1945.
On Wednesday, Hunt was publicly honored. His Purple Heart was awarded to his widow, Carol Hunt, during the annual Fourth of July dinner for U.S. military veterans hosted by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians.
Carol Hunt said she felt sadness in accepting the award in front of the hundreds of veterans in attendance at the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino Resort, because her husband wasn’t there to accept it himself.
He died three weeks ago.
At the same time, she said, she was proud of him. Her husband knew he deserved that medal. He was also able to enjoy it for a time, as it was given to him privately at the end of 2006.
"He looked at me when he got it and said, ‘See, I wasn’t lying,’" his wife recalled. "I said, ‘I never doubted.’"
Milton Hunt was one of three veterans who received awards at the eighth annual event. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and Mary Newman, veterans services officer for Douglas County, presented the honors.
Newman told the story of Jack Lewis, an Azalea man who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. He met Kenneth Lewis, no relation, and the two became best friends.
In March 1945 they were fighting on Iwo Jima. When fighting slowed, Kenneth Lewis would usually pick up the mail. One day, Jack Lewis did that job. On that day, when he returned, he found his unit being carried off on stretchers.
Kenneth Lewis had been killed.
Jack Lewis named one of his sons after his fallen friend. He had never, however, received his medals for his service.
On Wednesday, he was given the Combat Action Ribbon and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three stars for the battles of Tinian, Saipan and Iwo Jima.
"I never thought that much about it," Lewis said of the honors. "I just thank God for every day."
Wyden called all veterans "patriots" and said the men and women who serve are not part of fighting between Republicans and Democrats. He said funding for veterans services shouldn’t be either.
Wyden said that health care, including in Roseburg, "seems to be consistently good — when our veterans can get it.
"That funding should not be part of the partisan squabble," he said. "… It should be mandatory for all veterans."
Cow Creek Tribal Chairwoman Sue Shaffer said veterans have earned "ongoing respect for their efforts." She said at the beginning of every year, local veterans will approach her and ask if there will be another Fourth of July banquet for veterans.
The answer will always be "yes," Shaffer said.
"The Fourth of July is their party," she said.>
William and Jan Simmons of Winston have attended for at least six years. This year, Jan Simmons watched as her husband was given his "long overdue" Army Commendation Medal.
William Simmons served in Vietnam from April 1968 to October 1969. On his first day in Vietnam, his unit compound was hit by more than 350 rounds of incoming rockets.
He survived attacks during the war and dealt with the loss of friends, but he said he didn’t know how to react to receiving his medal in front of so many people Wednesday.
"I’m kind of bashful, anyhow," he said.
His wife, however, was both proud and grateful for it.
"I think it’s time for the veterans to be acknowledged more and this is wonderful," she said of the event. "We appreciate it."