August 8, 2003

Looking Back on Oroville's Heroes                          

By Stu Shaner

 

These stories are about the men and women who went to war SO that we might be free. Bill Connelly and I are Co Chairmen of the Oroville Veterans Memorial Committee. For more information call 533- 8147.

 

Oroville Mercury  December 4th and October 26th 1950

 

"Some Gave All"

WOUNDS FATAL TO OROVILLE GI

Pfc. Howard Hawes, 17, of Hilldale Avenue, died of wounds received in Korea, friends of the family said today. A telegram notifying his mother Mrs. June Hawes, of his death, was received from the Defense Department Saturday night, according to Glen Keifer of Oroville. Hawes, a former Oroville high school student, was wounded by mortar fire Oct. 5 while serving as a member of the 5th regiment of the 1st Cavalry. His mother later received a telegram stating that he had been wounded. Hawes enlisted in April with Lawrence Keifer, son of Glen Keifer and Mrs. Mary Morris of Quincy Road. The youths arrived in Korea in mid-September. Keifer is now hospitalized in Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco suffering from frozen feet.

 

SOLDIER'S WIFE GETS FIRST-HAND REPORT ON KOREA LETTER FROM KOREA

Mrs. Dorothy Nicolas of Thermalito, wife of Sgt. Richard Nicolison the army's 1st Cavalry Division, reads a letter from her husband that illustrates the turn of events in Korea. It was written on stationery Nicolas took from a Korean officer he killed. The illustration on the paper depicts the advance of powerful North Korean forces with tanks, airplanes and artillery during early days of the war. How tough the going was in Korea for United Nations forces before they put the North Koreans to rout is told in a letter to the wife of a Thermalito career soldier. The letter, from Sgt. Richard Nicolas, 27, of the first cavalry, was received by Mrs. Nicolas last week. It was written Oct. 3 while Nicolas was in a rest camp. Nicolas, who was stationed in Japan when the war broke, went into action in Korea July 5. For weeks the men fought without a chance to take a bath, often without food and water. Then the pressure eased, enough reinforcements arrived so they could be pulled out for a seven-day rest. But the war wasn't over. Nicolas and the other men who had reached a rest camp, at last, gave blood to others who hadn't been as lucky in the fighting. Nicolas was in the first regiment to go across the 3e parallel. He has been in the army 12 years. His wife and three children a daughter, Diann, 5, and sons Danny, 4 and Johnny, 2, had planned to go to Japan Sept. 1 to join Nicolas but the Korean incident prevented the reunion. Before going to Japan in April, 1950, Sgt. Nicolas served 14 months in Alaska.

 

NO HOPE FOR BOB WITH MAXINE ALONG

WONSAN, Korea-(U.P.)- Comedian Bob Hope performed for the 1st Marine Division at the airport here today, but blonde Marilyn Maxwell, wearing a tight sweater and singing "I Want To Love You," stole the show. The Hope caravan entertained the leather necks for two hours in a cavernous hangar which had been cleared of wrecked Russian made planes only a few hours earlier. There were no loud speakers and the acoustics were poor. But the sultry Miss Maxwell brought down the house with her renditions of "I Want To Love You' and "I Want To Go Home With You".

 

Stu's notes; I was 10 years old living here in Oroville, (Thermalito) when this young man was killed just 7 years older then me. We walked the same streets yet I never heard of him until a few days ago when l was reading an old Mercury Register. Why did our town forget him? He went to war and died for us and we didn't even remember his name. Just a few words in the paper and he was gone. Forgotten. So young, so brave, so far from home. Lynn and I went to Fairfield Saturday. Debbie’s Commander’s wife, Esther Bristow had a Bar-B-Que for the families of the 2632nd Transportation Co., Debbie's outfit. Seems they are running shotgun for the Iraqi truck drivers. Staff Sgt. David Chapman came home on official business and told each of us about our soldiers. He knew them all personally. He said they were the best (he is regular army). Debbie did have a little fender bender with an Iraqi car, but the convoy does not stop The driver was standing by his car waving as they went on. Good or bad wave was not determined. David will go back soon. Bob Hope, one of a kind; he loved the troops.