OCR Text |
Show "S Sun Advocate Price, Utah Thursday November 7. 2002 IB .1 i. f World War I (the Great War" or the War to end all wan as it was called before World War II, began in 1914, but the United States didnt enter ihe conflict until April of 1917. The first force sent loyer was a 50,000 man "Expeditionary Force. Oscar W. Evans was 22 when he went into the Army to enter the fight. He was bom in Lehi, but raised in Winter Quarters and Castle Dale. He also worked in mines in Hiawatha, Spring Canyon and where he was when he joined the ser- He granted an interview to Mildred B. Sutch jn July of 1992 in which he described his life and some of hiswar experiences. After being inducted he went to Camp Johnson, Fla. to be trained. He became a truck driver and within a couple of months was sent to France. Of course the trucks he drove were rudimentary vehicles, with the motor car only haring been in production for about 20 years at the time. Here is part of his story. There are three things that I would like to mention how my life was saved while driving these trucks. The first one was that I had a load of ammunition that was to be delivered to the front and I had a Sergeant along with me that had the orders as to I should take this load. We came to our sol-diets and there were hundreds ofthem. There were Captains Generals and a lot of boys. They were about a half mile from the trenches. They said don't take your load to the trenches unload it here and weH take care of it. The Sergeant said, "I can't un-load it here, I can't disobey orders." The Generals (Continued on page 28) t World War II began in earnest for the United States with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941. There were many theatres ofwar and one of the places where America struck back first was in North Africa where the Germans, along with their Italian allies, were trying to drive out the Brit-ish and free French. A Carbon County native, John B. Grako, was bom in Sunnyside. The 85 year old still lives and works in the county. He was bom in 1917 and lived in Price with his grandmother in those early years. He graduated from Scottficld, I1L in radio op- erarions and completed his basic training at Shepherd Field in Tkxas. While he was in Tfexas he became sick from the wind blowing red dust from the Red River Valley and was hospitalized with nasal problems. Hying to get away from the Ibxas problem he applied for a radio operator and mechanic position and was sort to an Army. Air Base Radar School in Orlando, Fla. Once be completed this school he was ready for overseas and at Norfolk, Wu he boarded the ship FlmenceNjgbtingaleforthetrm.Thiswasdiefirst big gathering of ships that were bound for Europe. In September of 1942 it was the beginning of the invasion into Northern Africa. His ship landed in Port Lyautuy, which was part of French Moroco, which is only about 100 miles from Casa Blanca. They landed around Nov. 8, which was dose to Veteran's Day, almost 11 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served his (Continued on page 38) . The Korean War was called a Police action the politicians, but for the soldiers that were in by it, it was a full fledged war. In June of 1950 the North Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. America and the United Nations qukldy responded by sending forces to drive back the Koreans which they did. Sixteen nations supplied troops to the fight, but over 90 percent of the men that fought were Americans. In time the United Nations troops drove the Koreans almost to their border with China, but the Chinese, obviously feeling threatened, attacked and with their huge advantage in numbers of troops were able to push the U.N. troops back to the 38th parallel wire re an uneasy tension holds to this day. The U.S. still has thousands of troops in South Korea today, with the possibility of another war just a few gunshots away. ark Warren, who was bom cm the banks of the Ohio River in southeastern Ohio was one of the men that fought in the Korean War. Warren, who has called Carbon County his home for many years, joined the Navy in 1948 and' immediately knew he wanted to be in the Naval Air Force. He went to boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Hauling Facility and then was sent to Memphis, Tfenn. for airmans and ordinance school. In 1949 he was sent to the west coast and at- tended gunnery school in San Diego. He was then transferred to a Navy patrol bomb squad on North Island in San Diego. He was placed on an airplane few today have (Continued on page 2B) Steven Wilkinson of Price served in the United States Army for 13 and a halfyears. Six months of that was spent fighting in Desert Storm or as it is known today, the Gulf War. Steven was injured in that battle as America led a coalition to remove Suddam Hussein from Kuwait. Growing up in southern California he is a gradu- ate of Santa Ynez Valley High School, which is near Santa Barbara. He enlisted on his 18th day. Prior to Desert Storm he served in several cations on American soil and spent two tours in birth-Sunnysi- lo-tic- e. Germany. Wilkinson was one ofover a half million Ameri- can troops that were moved into the region beginning in August of 1990. He was sent to an area near the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in October of 1 990 and the division began moving north into defensive positions around the middle of December. The war officially began January 17, 1991 and by that time Wilkinsons unit had arrived in King Khalib Military City in Saudi Arabia. He was in the first Calvary division, and they were the heaviest division in the world at that time, ' Wcknewweweregettingdosetowar,hesays, recalling, we were issued hand grenades, live munition and they conducted final equipment am-whe- re checkups. The official word came at 2:45 a.m. January 17 when cruise missiles were fired towards Iraq, The skies were filled with aircraft, he remem- bets. Wilkinson said his unit continued movi ng north (Continued on page 38) |