We don’t know them all, but we owe them all

This is a feel-good story that was brought to the Eagle’s attention by Mildred Klamar of Gatzke. She was so humble about it and was hesitant to share, but once you hear the story, you’ll be glad she opted to share it with our readers.

Mildred’s husband, Roland, passed away last March; he was an Air Force Airman First Class serving in the United State Air Force from 1952-1956. Being a veteran, he would be proud to know of the project his wife undertook that brought so much joy to other vets.

Let’s rewind the clock back to January of 2016. Roland was a patient at the Minneapolis Veteran’s Administration Medical Center. Mildred was, of course, with him in the hospital as she says she never missed an appointment with her husband. While at the VA hospital, a nurse brought in a letter for Roland. This letter was written by a Minnesota high school student (from the Duluth area) thanking a veteran for their service to our country. The general letter included the student’s name, town, age, hobbies, future plans, but most importantly, thanked veterans for their service. Mildred says they were touched by the letter, both being so impressed at the kindness extended. The nurse said they often receive letters like that and deliver them to veterans recovering in the hospital. Generally, the ones receiving the letters are veterans that have no one to look after them after surgery or don’t have a home to recover in. 

Mildred wanted to keep that kindness going. About a month after Roland passed, she approached Grygla High School Principal, Jamie Lunsetter. She asked if the Grygla High School students in grades 6-12 would consider writing a general letter, similar to the one Roland had received. Lunsetter delivered on his end with 67 letters being written and sent; half of the letters were sent to the Fargo VA and the other half were sent to the Minneapolis VA. The Grygla School address was included in the letters in case any of the vets wanted to write back to the students. Lunsetter said one was recently sent back by one of the veteran recipients.

What a kind and selfless idea by all involved. Mildred and the Grygla School received a letter back from the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Minneapolis VA. It expressed thanks and explained how the letters were delivered to their Veterans saying, “The commitment you have shown to our Veterans demonstrates your concern for America’s heroes.” The Fargo VA also sent a letter back saying, “A simple thank you seems far too small a gesture for the kindness you have shown our Veterans.”

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in doing something similar, you can send a general letter, thanking a veteran for their service, to Minneapolis Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Attention Voluntary Service, #1 Veterans Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55417. Or to Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System, 2101 Elm Street N, Fargo, ND 58102.

A couple of years ago, in honor of Veterans Day, Roland Klamar sat down with the Grygla Eagle and shared his story about his service to the United States of America. In his honor and memory, we’re choosing to share his story again with you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roland Klamar – Air Force Airman First Class (1952-1956)

Written by Kari Sundberg, Eagle Editor, originally published in November of 2014

Roland Klamar had always been interested in airplanes. At age 20 he had his first airplane ride from Melvin Wilkens, who the Grygla Municipal Airport - the Mel Wilkens Field - is named after. When Roland chose to enlist, it’s no surprise he chose the United States Air Force. Due to be drafted, Roland made the decision to enlist. It was 1952; he was 21 years old and was living on the home farm in Gatzke. 

Roland’s first destination was the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas, where he would spend the next 8 weeks in Basic Training. From there, he headed to Springfield, Massachusetts, to the Westover Air Reserve Base, where he would spend the next year in the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) Atlantic Division. Roland was a loadmaster. A loadmaster performs the calculations and plans cargo and passenger placement to keep the aircraft within permissible center of gravity limits throughout the flight. It was also his duty to ensure cargo was properly secured, as an unexpected shift of the load could have produced serious handling problems for the aircraft. Most of Roland’s time at the base was spent working rotating shifts and getting on-the-job training.

A little more than a year later, there was an opportunity to volunteer for overseas duty. Volunteers could pick to go to Germany or Korea. Roland picked Germany but was sent to Korea. The Korean War (1950-1953) was just coming to an end but the area was still considered a combat zone but was making its transition out of war zone. 

Having left out of Oakland, California, by ship, the crew made its 18-day voyage to southern Japan. Roland became a part of the 315th Air Division and served in his outfit called the 6127th Air Terminal Group Combat Cargo. Their headquarters were at Ashiya, Japan on Kyushu Island. From Ashiya, Roland’s unit went to the Taegu (K-2) Air Base in Korea, which was a fighter base that was also a main cargo hub for South Korea. Cargo would come in and Roland, and the crew he supervised, would load it onto smaller transport planes. Along with cargo and combat supplies, wounded soldiers would also come through on their way to a military hospital in Tachikawa, Japan. Unfortunately, Roland also saw some things he’d rather forget. “Bodies of the deceased were also brought to our base and flown to another base to be processed home to the USA. For about 3 months, we’d have casualties coming in 4 days a week. I couldn’t stand it,” Roland said. 

In between unloading and loading planes, Roland and members of his squadron had a little downtime on the base, too. “Most of my photos were developed off hours in a dark house that we had set up in one of the little shacks. Other guys would teach me how to develop photos and we got pretty good at it! We had to be careful, though, and ended up destroying a lot of the photos at a later date,” he stated. Roland also remembers going pheasant hunting one time. “We were shaking in our boots going out in those hills. There was plenty of room for problems,” he recalls.

One of Roland’s duties was to travel off base to pick up Korean workers. He was responsible for transporting them to and from the base. At the time, there wasn’t enough US Military and the Koreans would work on base for cheap, helping load cargo and doing a lot of physical work. Roland said you could trust most of them, but you still had to watch them, as you were unsure of their intentions. He shared one scary incident involving one of the Koreans putting a knife to his neck while he was hauling them to the base. He couldn’t actually see who was doing it because the workers were sitting in the box behind him while he was driving. “I grabbed my 45 but when I turned around, no one would admit to it or say a word about it,” he added.

Though there was plenty of room for problems, there was also a little room for fun. As part of the USO Entertainment, Roland was able to meet the Andrew Sisters, Bob Hope and also shake the hand of Marilyn Monroe!

After his year overseas was up, it was time to head back to the United States. Roland has an old commander to thank for his speedy trip home. He had originally received orders that said ‘surface transportation’ which meant he’d have a long journey via ship back to the USA. At 11pm one night, his name was called over the PA, along with 6 others. New orders had come in and the papers said ‘air transportation back to the states’. “I’ll tell you how good that felt,” Roland said. “Two days later I had my feet on American soil and was home in Gatzke.” However, the trip home only lasted 30 days. It was a short leave before he had to go finish out his time at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. He would spend the next year and a half there before being relieved from active duty. While in Delaware, he held the same job as Loadmaster. It wasn’t an easy year and half on the job, though, as Dover AFB is home to the largest military mortuary. The remains of military personnel killed in both war and peacetime were flown into Dover before being transferred to their family. “We had a huge supply of US flags. They were really strict on that and we made sure each body had a flag draped over it,” he specified.

In 1956, Roland was relieved from active duty. He returned home to Gatzke where he started farming with his family. He was married to Mildred on August 22, 1959 and raised three children – Brent, Merlin and Julie.

He joined The American Legion and the VFW shortly after he got out of the Air Force. When asked how his experiences have shaped him today, Roland replied, “I have a clearer understanding of discipline. Before the military, I was set in my own way. They deprogrammed my stupid ideas and turned me into being unified with other people. There has to be unity in the military. You can’t be an individualist and I enjoyed my experience and I would definitely do it again.”