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When Bob Decker enlisted in the Navy in 1960, he was part of a special group – 80 Montana All-Staters were inducted together in Butte and went as the 587th to boot camp in San Diego, California. Bob says when he started his 9 weeks he was lower than a tadpole, but he moved up in seniority as other groups worked their way through. His boot camp designation patch was E-3. Every morning the routine included calisthenics, breakfast and marching around an area called “the grinder,” with your “piece” above your head. A rifle was called a “piece,” NEVER a “rifle.” The 9th week was for games and Bob was the director. He ...
Spread out Montana’s 676,000 jobs evenly, like sprouts in a Kansas cornfield, and each worker would have 140 acres to plow. But the state’s economy, like its topography, isn’t particularly flat. Just as the landscape directs where we can build homes and businesses, economic geography sha...
Jim Mathias was driving a truck after high school but decided he couldn’t keep doing that. He had always wanted to be in the Army and to jump out of airplanes. His mother discouraged his enlistment, but it wasn’t her decision to make, and he enlisted in the Army in December of 1969. His recruiter...
For most people, being number one is a good thing, but not for Melvin Quakenbush. On New Year’s Eve, Melvin was driving around, celebrating and drinking a little beer when a friend pulled him over and asked if he had heard about President Nixon’s new draft plan – eligible men would be draft...
When asked how he came to join the Army, Slim says, “The judge sent me.” In December of 1962 he was caught with “adult beverages,” but he was not an adult. In January 1963, he had a choice to make, and joining the Army seemed to be the best of the choices the judge gave him. ...
POLSON – Payton Fitzpatrick was named to the four-man squad representing Montana in the Battle of the States bull riding event. The competition will be held at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Event Center in Reno, Nevada, on Nov. 10. According to the Rodeo USA website, “the Battle of the States is a...
Part 3: This is the third part of a three-part story on the role of community health workers in rural health care from the Montana Gap project. Two months ago, the boys played like children do, clambering around a ruined building just down the lush green hillside from their home. Now their mom, Moslene,...
MONTANA – The controversy over ballot Initiative 186 seems to be about two competing visions for Montana’s future economy, and water quality underlies them both. The ballot measure, if passed, would amend the state’s 1971 Metal Mine Reclamation Act to provide for an additional $115,00...
Tom Siple February 23, 1967 Desert Storm Era: Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia, Germany U.S. Army – 52nd Signal Battalion Tom Siple wanted to join the military, but there was a problem -- he was an early high school graduate and was too young. Not wanting to waste time, Tom went to college until his 17th birth...
This is the second part of a three-part story on the role of community health workers in rural health care from the Montana Gap project. The Partners In Health headquarters resides in a huge state-of-the-art hospital in Mirebalais, about a half-hour drive southwest of Cange. On what has become a typ...
