Veterans Day - Nov. 11, 2012

Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2012

HeroesThe sons anddaughters ofClevelandCounty haveserved thiscountry withcourage andvalor. Here aresome of theirstories.

The sons anddaughters ofClevelandCounty haveserved thiscountry withcourage andvalor. Here aresome of theirstories.

2 2012 American Heroes:Your stories Sunday, Nov 11, 2012

InsideAltman, Lt. (JG) Joseph L. . . . . .4

Gastgeb, Ken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Hartman, Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Hendershot, Cecil . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Hendershot, Ernest . . . . . . . . . . .2

Hill, Garett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Hill, Garrett Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Matthews, Lt. Bill . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Matthews, Coy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Myers, Warren G. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Richardson, David E. . . . . . . . . . .5

Simms, Loren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Sloan, Jerry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Stephenson, John . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Your storiesEditor’s note: These are thestories by and about Norman-areaservice personnel who haveanswered their country’s call toarms. Because of the responsefrom readers, some veteransstories are appearing in theSunday, Nov. 11, 2012, NormanTranscript.

On the coverVeteran Joe King participates in

the 2011 Veterans Day Celebration,saluting the flag Friday during the“Pledge of Allegiance” before theFriday, Nov. 11, 2011, ceremony atReaves Park.

Photo: Kyle Phillips / TheNorman Transcript

By Leola MitchellNorman

I have two uncles whoserved in World War II. Onewas killed, one is alive.

Parents James K. Hender-shot and Bessie R. (Beck) Hendershot areboth deceased.

Cecil Hendershot was a corporal whohad two Purple Hearts and a lot moremedals.

Not sure what age he was when he wentinto the military, nor how long he was overthere before he was killed in 1944. He wasto get out in 1945. He was not married.

His brother, Ernest Hender-shot, was in the Navy. Howev-er, he came home and is livingin Mountain Grove, Mo. I am

not sure of Ernest Hendershot’s rank, butit was higher than his brother’s. His dutywas flying airplanes up coastline to detectenemy subs in the oceans.

Two uncles served in World War II

Provided Photos

Cecil Hendershot, left, killed in action in 1944. Ernes Hendershot is living inMountain Grove, Mo.

By Jo Carol SloanNorman

I have attached a photo of my husband, avery young Jerry Sloan, taken in June1970 sit-ting in front of a Fire Direction Control hoochsomewhere in Vietnam.

His return home remains one of the most poignantmemories of my life. We had married in June1968. Hischildren, Andrew Sloan and Tami Sloan Bart, and I arevery proud of his Vietnam-era service.

Family stands proudProvided Photo

Jerry Sloan, 1970, Vietnam.

By Alice E. “Pixie”StephensonNorman

My maternalgrandparentslost their bakery,cleaners and tin

shop in Norman duringrationing in WWII; grand-dad also made large cam-eras for the University ofOklahoma. My Grandfather,Garrett Hill, served in

World War II.My uncle,

Garrett Hill Jr.,was career mili-tary, beginning in

Korea, earning the rank ofcolonel over the years; hehelped run Fort Hood inTexas, in the 1970s. Myuncle and grandfather built817 W. Eufaula St., in Nor-man, which could have beenfrom one of Sears HonorBuilt home kits shipped by

rail from 1908-1940. My father,

John Stephen-son, was anAmerican hero

from World War II, 100 per-cent disabled veteran, nowplaced at Arlington Nation-al Cemetery with my moth-er.

I remember, as a child,mothers calling one by oneto say their daughters could-n’t come to my Mother’s first

Bluebird meeting “since myfather was a disabled veter-an.” My mother looked likeshe’d been punched in thestomach when not one per-son came to her first Blue-bird meeting. Dad lookedstunned.

So, my father went towork in radiology while liv-ing at Veterans Hospital sohis family was not penalizedby others over his service-connected disability.

Be a herobeing kindto veteransand theirfamilies

American Heroes:Your stories Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 3

By Dale HartmanGrandson, Army, World War I

This story beginswith an immigrantcouple from Austriacoming in to New

York City with two daughters. Astrong young man named JacobHartman was looking for a newlife.

They didn’t even get out ofNew York City before they losta daughter. Moving west, theyhad two more daughters and ason, named Frank. They lostanother daughter in Kansas andmoved farther south, wherethey settled on a farm just eastof Noble. When Frank was 14years old, intruders came to thefarm to rob them. The familyfought back and Frank’s fatherwas shot and killed in thedriveway. Frank was the onlyson and now the man of thehouse.

War broke out, his countrycalled and he left the farm to hismom and sisters in 1917, andreported to the Army at CampTravis in Texas. He shipped outfrom there to England in May1918 and a few days later toFrance. While working his waythrough France, his buddy waswriting his gal back home andtold Frank she had a twin sisternamed Estes and he shouldwrite her. He wrote the letter;she wrote back, they then wroteback and forth.

Frank fell in battle in July1918, was presumed dead and

left behind. With severewounds below the waist andshoulder but still alive, hebegan to crawl, and crawl, andcrawl till he was found and sentto a base hospital.

His mother and two sistersback home were notified of hisdeath, life insurance moneypaid and The Norman Tran-script reported him the firstkilled in action in WWI fromCleveland County.

Six months of differenthospitals and surgeries fol-lowed, but he slowly recovered.When he was finally able towrite home, his family only thenlearned he was alive.

Frank was discharged inFebruary 1919. He came hometo Noble, and then went to meetin person the girl who wrotehim back. He married Estes afew months later. They settledon the family farm east of Nobleand raised their family.

When Frank was 59 yearsold, diabetes did what thejourney west, the intruders onthe farm or a world war couldn’tdo — it took his life. He lies ineternal rest next to his farm andhis wife.

Today, he has sons Roy andEarl, a daughter, Ellen, and twodaughters-in-law still alive. Inever knew my Grandpa, but Ithink of him often.

It is when I am strong that Ifeel my Grandpa. It was menand women like these, whomade our country strong andthe land of the free.

He fought his way back from World War I trenchesWhen war brokeout, FrankHartmananswered hiscountry’s call toarms, and leftthe farm east ofNoble to hismom andsisters in 1917,and reported tothe Army atCamp Travis inTexas.

Provided Photo


By Warren G. MyersArmy, World War II

Back in 1940, I was a student at theUniversity of Oklahoma majoring in petrole-um engineering. But I was also a member ofCompany D 179th Infantry, 45th Division

which trained at the armory located on the courthousegrounds across from the Norman Depot.

We were called to active duty “for one year” on Sept.16, 1940, and left for Fort Sill a few days later.

In 1942, I was promoted to lieutenant in artillery andwas transferred to the 189th Field Artillery 45th Division,which was commanded by Lt. Col. Hal Muldrow ofNorman.

How lucky can you get? I served with him till the war was over in Europe and

we were used as occupants afterward. Got home inSeptember 1945 — five years after September 1940!!!!

“D” Co. and “C” Co. 120th Engineers were againcalled in to support the Korean effort. After the armorywas torn down, the veterans got together and decided tobuild a monument (or something) to establish this sightas a permanent marker/reminder of its history. With thehelp of the Cleveland County commissioners, theguidance of Bob Goins, the insistence of Frank Pickeland the donations from veterans and their wives andwidows we were able to build this monument in thenorthwest corner of the courthouse which remindseveryone of its importance.

As far as we are concerned, this is on hallowed groundand should be treated as such.

Recently, I was on my way to church and drove by ourmonument and noticed that the flags were at half staff.After thinking a minute, I decided they were loweredwith respect to our Ambassador Stevens. Was this acoincidence? I think not! I was pleasantly surprised whenI learned that the 2012 Veterans Day parade would startat the area of the Norman Depot and our monument atthe northwest corner of the courthouse. It is my under-standing that Maj. Gen. Gambill is head of the Mayor’sVeterans Day committee that planned the parade andactivities.

He and his group are to be commended and thankedfor their efforts.

One-time armory now termed hallowed ground

Submitted By Sally ArtmanWidow, Navy, World War II

Naval gunfirethundered shorewardover the heads of menof Underwater Demoli-

tion Team 12 as they headed forthe beach on Iwo Jima.

It was Feb. 17, 1945, two daysbefore U.S. Marines stormed thestrongly defended Japanese-heldisland, Ensign Joseph Artman wasleading his elite “Frogmen” on amission to get a preview of whatthe Marines would be up againstwhen they came ashore.

These men wore swim trunksand swam ashore with 40 to 60pounds of explosives on theirbacks. A minimum trainingrequirement was to be able to dive17 feet deep into the sea and swima mile in half an hour underenemy fire.

“That water was cold; and wehad no wet suits then,” JosephArtman said. “We just smeared onregular old car grease, but thatdidn’t last long.”

The cold was soon forgotten asJapanese defenders heated thingsup.

We werecalled to

active duty“for oneyear” onSept. 16,

1940, andcame homein Septem-ber 1945 —

five yearsafter

September1940!

Provided Photo

Sailor waspart of elitefrogmanteam

• See ARTMAN, Page 5

“We went in broad daylight, we couldsee firing all around,” he said. “If we wentunder water we could catch bullets in ourhands that had gone into the water andwere falling.”

For the Japanese it was like trying toshoot bobbing apples in a tub. We went inpast seven gunboats giving us firesupport, and there were ships and planesgiving us cover.

The Japanese thought it was the realinvasion.

Artman trained in Florida after beingcommissioned an ensign out of NROTCat the University of Oklahoma. And thetraining was tough for the super-secretFrogmen, predecessors of today’sSEALS.

“We would have to swim a mile at atime using nothing but under waterstrokes so as to not disturb the surface ofthe water and give away our positions,”Artman said.

Training initially as a Naval CombatDemolition Unit, Artman’s group wasoriginally scheduled to go to Normandyto prepare for the D-Day invasion. Butanother group was sent to Europe, andArtman’s unit was redesignated as UDT.They ran into reefs at Tarawa anddecided they needed someone to go infirst and clear away obstacles. When theexistence of UDT teams became public,they were widely referred to as theAmerican Suicide Corps.

On his initial trip onto the Iwo Jimabeaches, Artman and his 2nd Platoonspent about an hour and a half scoutingthe terrain and blowing up a few mines.

“Because I had been there two daysbefore, I was assigned to lead the firstwave of Marines to Red Beach the day of

the invasion,”Artman said.“We went inabout 8 a.m.,and therewas prettygood firecoming in —machinegun, mortarand rifle.

“Weactually gotwithin about40 yards ofthe beachand stayedthere as thelanding craftpassed,” hesaid. “Wewent backlater endedup stayingon the beachfor four daysblowing upwreckedboats andtrying to keep the beach clear.”

Artman was awarded the Silver Star forconspicuous gallantry during the IwoJima operation. UDT-12 finished the warwith two Presidential Citations.

Artman saw the famous flag-raising onMount Suribachi — from a slightlydifferent perspective.

“I was on the beach and saw them raiseboth flags,” Artman said. “I thought theywere going to get killed.”

Artman went on to participate in theinvasion of Okinawa and was preparingfor the invasion of Japan when theJapanese surrendered.


• From Page A1

Artman

Lt. (J.G.) Joseph L Artman

Joe returned to Norman after thewar and graduated from OU. Heworked for Texaco for 35 years. Heretired and eventually moved toNorman.

He died at Norman RegionalHospital in January 2006.

— Sally Altman, wife of Joe Artman

Provided Photo

David E. Richardson said chose to enlist in the Army to servemy country.

By David E. RichardsonArmy, Vietnam War

I spent eight yearsin the Army from 1971to 1979.

I chose to enlist inthe Army to serve my country.During that time, I was stationedat Fort Sill in Lawton.

My unit trained to be sent toVietnam. I was one of the luckyones in the fact that I was not sentto Vietnam.

At the end of my tour, I re-enlisted in the Army. I was sent toHawaii. Once I got there, I wastrained some more for Vietnam. Ihad to rappel from moving heli-copters. I was sent on severaltraining missions along with myunit. We had to do this many

times.When Vietnam fell, I wassent to Guam. Once there, myunit — along with many branch-es of military service — helped torelocate the Vietnamese people.

We also had to help them adaptto their new surroundings. TheVietnamese people were sent todifferent parts of the UnitedStates. Once this was completed,we were sent back to Hawaii. Iwas going to finish my secondtour of duty but before I could, Iwas discharged on a medical dis-charge.

This happened because myback and both knees were injuredin training. My injuries kept mefrom doing my job. So I was med-ically discharged.

I was sent back home.

Soldier helped relocateVietnamese refugees


By Loren C. SimmsArmy, Vietnam War

I served with “C”Battery 5/42 Artillery, IIField Force in theRepublic of Vietnam

from 1969 to 1970. I’ll never forget the heat,

humidity and smell of the place.My military occupational specialtywas 13E40. I made “BuckSergeant” E-5. I was awarded theNational Defense Medal; VietnamService Medal, Republic of VietnamGallantry Cross with Palm; Repub-lic of Vietnam Campaign Medalwith 1960 device and the ArmyGood Conduct Medal. One of thehighlights of my tour was the R&Rin Sydney, Australia, for sevendays.

My story is about the rats at FireSupport Base Thu Thua in theDelta. We were located betweenthe Parrots Peak of Cambodia andthe town of Tan An. The area wascovered with rice fields and wascrawling with big rats.

After the rice harvest the ratsneeded another source of food sothey would invade the bunkers andhooch where we lived. Finally, wewere being overrun with thesehuge field rats.

It was then someone thought ofone way to rid ourselves of thisproblem and have a “little fun” atthe same time. Ten or 15 live rattraps were purchased at the localvillage market. They were set andplaced everywhere the rats hadbeen known to be numerous. Thenext morning the traps would be

checked. A big circle of troopswould assemble in an open areainside our Fire Support Base. Ourmedic would “shoot up” a rat withmedical alcohol. Then someonewould douse the rat with gasolineand set him on fire as he left thecage. The frightened rat would runin circles. The idea was that the ratwould dart between the legs of atrooper then he would kick the ratback in the circle. Eventually therat would die burnt to a crisp.

That was the plan.But the first time we set out to

have some fun, the rat didn’tcooperate. He skedaddled betweensomeone’s legs and went right intoa bunker containing 100 rounds ofhigh explosive artillery shells andhundreds of bags of propellantpowder.

We all froze and held our breathpraying the whole fire support basecontaining guns, thousands ofrounds of high explosives wouldnot explode in a tremendous fire-ball. After three or four minutes,the captain sent one of the troopsinto the bunker to see whathappened to the rat. Well, the ratwas dead and we learned ourlesson.

Needless to say, the captain said,“NO MORE GAMES!”

I left Vietnam a wiser and moremature man.

I went back to college andearned a Master of Education. Itaught history and geography for28 years at the secondary level. Imarried an elementary teacher in1975. We have one son of whom Iam very proud.

Maturity gained through experience

Sgt. Loren C. Simms

We were first with the 54thArtillery group and later the36th Artillery group. I workedin the Fire Direction Controlsection directing the 155Howitzers in missionsagainst the North Viet-namese Army and the VietCong.

I was also responsible forthe operation and mainte-nance of the two FDACgenerators. My artillery unitfired in support of the 9thInfantry Division and the199th Infantry Brigadeoperating in the MekongDelta and in the CentralHighlands.

— Loren C. Simms, U.S. Army

By Ken GastgebArmy, World War II

Several months after I arrived at Port Moresby,New Guinea, in 1943, the movie of the week was“Rhapsody in Blue” starring Joan Leslie.

After the movie, I went to my tent and wrote hera letter asking her to be our pinup girl.

A couple weeks later, I received a letter and a picture fromher. She sent such a nice letter and beautiful picture of herselfthat I want everyone to see them.

I’m sharing a copy of the letter and my drawing of thepicture she sent.

After the war, I wrote to her and we became good friends. Back in the 1970s, a group of officers got together and

formed a reunion organization of the 345th Bomb Group.Several years later, I attended a reunion.

Then I invited Joan Leslie to attend a reunion and sheaccepted my invitation.

I suggested to the officers that she could be an honorarymember of the reunion group, which led up to her becomingour Apache Princess.

Pinup girl becomesgroup’s Apache Princess


By Bill Matthews25th Infantry Division, VietnamSon of World War II veteran Coy Matthews

To many people, words like“war” or “hero” conjure up TVor movie images of infantrysoldiers, SEAL teams, or

fighter pilots locked in battle with avicious enemy.

I agree, having seen “grunts” in theline, infantry battalions of the 25thInfantry Division come and go from ourfire support bases, to encounter dangersevery day in the field from mines, boobytraps or enemy fire. But the unsungheroes of most wars are the “supporttroops” — those soldiers, airmen, orsailors who are often in harm’s way toprovide necessities that the frontlinesoldiers, pilots, or marines must have to

accomplish their mission. Men like my father, Coy

Matthews, who served with

the 77th Air Depot Group on Guam andSaipan in WWII, supplying the bombersthat were striking Japan, in spite of takingoccasional sniper fire from Japanese whoremained on the islands.

In 1969-1970, I was a first lieutenantwith the 25th Infantry Division in SouthVietnam, including eight months ascompany commander of the Headquar-ters Company (HHC) of the DivisionSupport Command (DISCOM).

The 25th Infantry Division area ofoperations was about 30 miles wide, fromnear Saigon to the Cambodian border tomiles north, in an area of rice fields,rubber plantations, dense triple-canopyforest, and some of the most intensefighting of the war. DISCOM wasresponsible for supplying infantry andartillery units anywhere in the divisionarea.

DISCOM headquarters was at thelarge CuChi basecamp (now famous forthe VC tunnels we barely knew were

there), with forward supply points at TayNinh, and at small fire support/resupplybases on the Cambodian border.

Men in my company were responsiblefor providing food, diesel and gasoline,ammunition, artillery rounds, or othersupplies needed by the infantry andartillery.

We lived at the perimeter of CuChi, soHHC soldiers nightly manned one of thefighting bunkers that protected the largebase camp.

Not long before I arrived, VC emergedfrom tunnels inside the company area,and several HHC personnel were killedbefore eventually killing the invaders atclose quarters.

To carry out the mission, men in mycompany regularly drove in convoys oralone over heavily mined, ambush-prone,dirt roads that connected the forwardbases; took occasional sniper fire at theperimeter bunker line; and patrolledsmall villages to protect army doctors

doing “MedCaps” to treat civilians. Some of my men lived at the fire

support/resupply bases like Thien Ngonand Katum near the Cambodian border tooffload and distribute artillery rounds orother supplies.

These forward bases were only acouple hundred yards in diameter,surrounded by a simple earthen bermand a cleared area in the forest, and cameunder frequent mortar and rocket attacks.

Our guys did their jobs at theseforward bases nonetheless, and also wentinto Cambodia in the May-June 1970campaign to do the dangerous job ofhauling out captured weapons and rice.

So, while I have the greatest respect forline infantrymen anywhere doing theirunbelievably dangerous jobs, in Vietnamin the past or now in Afganistan, I alsosalute the “support troops,” who dodangerous, essential jobs every day,typically with little public appreciation forthe roles they play or risks they take.

Salute goes to support units behind the lines

Far left: Lt. BillMatthews,June 1, 1970,at the TayNinh airstrip.At left: Themen in Lt. BillMatthews’companyhauling outlarge bags ofrice capturedin Cambodia.

Provided Photos

Veterans Day - Nov. 11, 2012

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