Our Annual Tet-Bastogne Luncheon was held February 11 in Salem Oregon.

Next event for the Chapter will be our D-Day BBQ, July 14th in Sandy, Oregon.

 

We are very sorry to report that our long time friend and chapter member Retired Colonel Alfeo Bernardi passed away on Christmas, 2011.  He was 91 years young.   Col Bernardi served in WWII, Korea and was in Special Forces and retired after 32 years of active and reserve service.  Over the years he ran 30 marathons and countless road races.  His wife Norma ran every single mile with him. 

He carried the Olympic Torch in 1984 during it’s journey to the Los Angeles Olympics proudly wearing his Green Beret, the torch held high in his hand.   He was a resident of San Pedro, California for 45 years and retired to Oregon in 1980.  Al was also a member of the Southern California Chapter. He leaves behind his lovely wife, Norma, a former Army Nurse in WWII.

 Veteran’s Day 2011 – Fort Campbell

Bill Wingett presented the 506 Guidon to soldiers of the 506th. Please see attached article printed with permission from The Leaf Cronicle, KY.  Bill Wingett and Bill Kolhmeyer (H 3/187), Jerry Gomes (3/506 LRRP) and Roosevelt Mitchell (3/506 Medic B Co.) all attended various events during the Veterans Day week at Fort Campbell.    Jerry Gomes and Roosevelt Mitchell were both honored as Distinguished Members of the 506th Regiment at an induction ceremony on Nov. 11th. At the 506 hospitality room, Jerry ran into Sgt 1st Class Larry White and 1st Sgt Wiley B Co. 801st who were former LRSD soldiers in the division.  

Gomes and Rosy Mitchell were at the local VFW one evening recently.

 A former “82nd Airborne Paratrooper” was bragging about being in Vietnam.  Wives Kaye & Carolyn caught on right away……Kaye mentioned that she was a “Donut Dolly Wannabe” but the poser didn’t understand…..

 Confused, he slid on down the bar to boast to Mitch and Gomes about his “secret” paratrooping missions in Vietnam and bragged that “you could play tick tack toe on my scars.”  But he couldn’t reveal his unit, it was Top Secret. Vowing to never let a imposter slip by him again, Gomes asked him,

                            “What’s your 4th Point of Contact?”

 The poser looked puzzled said, “Uhhhhhh……I guess that would be my WIFE.”  Rosey gave him the evil eye and Jerry quietly said to him,  “You’re NOT Airborne and you’ve NEVER been in the 82nd!”

 “You don’t believe me???” he said in a meek squeaky voice and immediately beat feet! Sorry he didn’t get to finish his beer…………….

 The small farming town of Canby, Oregon has dedicated their new Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza.  Chapter members attended the ceremonies August 2011.

 Pennsylvania sculptor Wayne Hyde created the final piece of the memorial -- a bronze statue called "A Hero's Prayer," depicting a wounded soldier carried by another soldier with a Vietnamese girl holding the wounded soldier's hand.
Also at the memorial is a Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopter and a landing pad with a Red Cross symbol. The plaza is in the shape of an Asian character meaning "long life." Across from the helicopter is a temple bell inscribed with "believe in peace" in Vietnamese. The memorial also has a Blue Star Memorial , first erected in 1944 by the National Council of State Garden Clubs to honor those who served in the armed forces.

 

Our website is www.101stAirborneOregon.com

Contact Jerry Gomes at 503-668-6127 

 

 

Watch Video of Bill telling the Story 

 

Photo reprinted with permission/The Leaf Chronicle, KY.

 Guidon Passed to Current Currahees

by Philip Grey, The Leaf Chronicle, KY

(reprinted by permission)

 Original 506th PIR, E Company member Bill Wingett answers questions from current company soldiers on Nov. 9 at Ft. Campbell, KY after a ceremony where he presented the original company guidon from World War II back to the unit.

 Bill Wingett of Salem, Oregon one of only 32 surviving members of the original “Band of Brothers” had held on to the piece of blue cloth long enough. After 66 hears, he felt it was time to pass it on.

 On Nov. 10th, he stood in the 4th Brigade Combat Team area of Fort Campbell, KY, proud and erect.  In his right hand he held a military staff bearing the World War II-era guidon of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment “Currahees,” one of the most famous units of the United States Army. Nearby, the soldiers of today’s Easy Company fell into ranks, waiting.

 The man standing in front of them was a veteran of some of the most historic moments in U.S. Army history.  Wingett, 89, had jumped behind enemy lines into Normandy on D-Day, well before the landing craft hit the beaches miles away.  He had fought in the Netherlands during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, during which the 101st Airborne was mauled but left unbowed and unbeaten for another fight another day.

 He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where the Currahees and the rest of the Screaming Eagles took Hitler’s last best punch before sending the Nazis reeling into oblivion. A few months later, as the Third Reich was kicked into the ash-heap of history, Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” became the home of a new group of Eagles, and Wingett and his guidon were there as well.

 The current commander of Easy Company, Capt. Henry V. Hansen, told his first sergeant to bring the troops to attention.  A few moments later, Hansen accepted the historic guidon from the hands of the former private first class who had held it all the long years since the Second World War. Hansen then called the troops out of rank to fall in around Wingett. As the soldiers stared intently at the living history before them, Wingett spoke to them, telling them that he was proud of the way they had carried on the Easy Company legacy. “Thank you,” he said, “from every one of us, and from everyone else in the country.  I’m very, very happy that I had that guidon lying around and that I could finally bring it back where it belongs.”

 Giving a respectful nod to the combat service of the troops who stood around him, Wingett told them, “There are very few questions you could ask me that you couldn’t answer yourselves.” He then stated briefly about his own service, proudly stating that he was among the first soldiers to train at Camp Toccoa, Ga. in 1942 at the birth of the Currahee Regiment. Lastly, he spoke of serving with the legendary Maj. Dick Winters.

 “Maj. Winters was a good officer,” Wingett said, with obvious great respect undimmed through nearly 70 years.  “When he took over our platoon, I wrote my mother and said, “We have a man now that we can follow into hell.”He paused for several heartbeats and then added, “and we did.”