D-Day Teton Pass Run: Mission Accomplished

D-Day, 2009. 65th Anniversary of the great event that changed the world.

5.9 miles, 2,200 vertical climb, 80 minutes, and the top was reached.

Thanks WWII vets! See more about this effort at my Teton Pass Weblog.

Emerson High School flies Over Iraq with Pilot Mike Emerson

Air Force pilot Mike Emerson.

Back when I was teaching school and coaching in rural Wyoming, I met a young man named Mike Emerson. Mike attended Rock River High School, about 17 miles down the road from our own town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Rock River was even smaller than Medicine Bow. As a cross-country coach, I got to see all the kids from the other schools run each week during CC and track. Rock River rarely had enough kids to field a 5-man cross-country team, but there was one kid--one tough, smart, scrappy, gutsy kid--named Mike Emerson who made a big impression on me. This was back in the years 1985 to 1989, so obviously Mike is no longer a high schooler but most likely in his late thirties or early forties.

About a month ago through the wonders of the internet I reestablished contact with Mike. He was at that time--and still is---deployed to Iraq as an Air Force pilot, flying some type of huge aircraft, possibly a C-130, to different parts of Iraq. Mike will be coming home in a few weeks, God willing.

Crew Photo.

Big-ass bird! Note the Wyoming National Guard logo on the tail.

Mike was very interested that I taught at a school named Emerson High School. After all, that's his name. He asked if he could buy a couple of shirts with the Emerson name and logo on them. Instead, Principal Wendy Cavan donated the shirts and I put them in a box and mailed them to Iraq via the APO.

Mike sent this picture of the Emerson shirt in the cockpit of his aircraft.
Thanks, Mike, for your service, and come home safely.

Sunset over Baghdad, by Mike Emerson.

Wyoming Memories

Paul Fultz relaxes on his ranch at Como Bluff near Medicine Bow. Paul had Apaloosas, and my kids used to love to go up there and visit them and feed them. Pual was a retired county deputy sheriff, one of the last Wyoming lawmen to pack a six-shooter. Paul's brother Chuck was our neighbor and good friend. A former US Marine who fought at Gaudalcanal and Tarawa, Chuck helped us move to Idaho Falls. (This and Cronberg Photo by David L. Roberts)
Ted Cronberg on his sheep ranch outside Medicine Bow. I helped out a few times on this ranch.
Medicine Bow in its earliest days.

I heard from an old student from my days teaching at Medicine Bow, Wyoming in 1985-1989 and it brought back a flood of good memories. Medicine Bow today. Left, the Virginian Hotel, at one time the tallest building between Denver and the coast. Right, the old train station, now a museum.
Medicine Bow is a very small town on the High Plains of Wyoming. When we lived there it had a population of about 500. It was one of the most isolated places in the lower 48. Fifty-six miles to Laramie or Rawlins, the two closest towns, and 89 miles to Casper. There was a little store in town, three bars, a garage, and a liquor store. There was also a hotel and a motel.

Medicine Bow was made (sort of) famous by Owen Wister when he wrote the first true Western novel--The Virginian--back in the early 1900s. The book was set in Medicine Bow, after Wister had visited and spent the night sleeping on the top of the bar. In the fifties, there was a popular TV show called 'The Virginian' but that was before my time.

We made many close friends there. You had to. There was little to do other than sit and visit, drink coffee, and play games. The weather could get harsh, closing all the roads in and out of town and literally cutting us off from civilization.

I loved it there, and didn't want to leave. But my wife had nothing to do there and it was too far to the hospital in an emergency, so we moved in 1989 to Idaho Falls.

The school, Bow-Basin Junior Senior High School, had about 130 students K-12. We graduated about 12 kids a year. The building in which I taught is now empty, and the kids in town go to nearby mining town Hanna to school.

It was a magical place for me. Last year, my son and I went back and I took a hundred photos, but none came out because I accidentally deleted them. We saw some old friends, including an old rancher friend and the old coach. The town is down to around 300 people.

I'm putting a couple of good photos on here that capture the place. I knew these two men and felt, during those four years, that I lived where I belonged. Well, life moves on and things change, but Medicine Bow, Wyoming has a special place in my heart. Niel Young said it best: "All my changes were there". It was the first place we lived after being married, my son was born there, it was my first teaching job, and it's where I grew up in a lot of ways.

A final blast from the past. Current U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne pass through Medicine Bow back when Cheney was running for the U.S. Congress. The Cheneys are from Casper.

On A Clear Day...

The Grand Tetons as seen from the hill above Ammon, Idaho yesterday morning.

You almost CAN see forever.

Yesterday Geri and I went up and ran our legs of a 40-mile relay that takes place next Saturday. The photo was taken from the top of the Bone Hill, just outside of Ammon, Idaho.

The mountains in the distance are the Grand Tetons. For perspective, they are nearly 90 miles away. That's a long way to see on any day.

Below are the same Tetons up close and from the Wyoming side.

Blog Reader Remembers Doolittle and USS Hornet Sinking

My friend in Colorado, Jay Buckley, had this to write after reading my post on the passing of Doolittle Raider Nolan Herndon. It just goes to show this is a small world, as Jay has a direct link to both the Doolittle Raid and the USS Hornet.

Jay writes:

"Thanks for the story about the Doolittle raid. It brings back some very fond memories and stories.

My uncle graduated in the rush class of 1942 on December 8, 1941 from the Naval Academy. He was assigned to the USS Hornet as gunner officer. He was aboard the Hornet when they took on the B-25's and sailed for the seas off Japan to launch the raid.

After the Hornet was sunk, he came home on leave. I was able to persuade the principal of the grade school to let him give a talk about the raid. Well, the idea caught on and all the schools had him give a talk. I had the honor of introducing my uncle Bob, Lt. Robert Thum as a survivor of the USS Hornet. Pretty heady stuff for a young second grader.

Gunners on board the Hornet fire at aircraft during battle. This scene would have been a familiar one to Jay's Uncle Bob.

An interesting story happened during the sinking of the Hornet. The day it was sunk, which was in the evening in Rock Springs, Wyoming, my Aunt had a feeling not all was right with her son. There was a large portrait hanging in their music room. She went in there and looked at the portrait of her son. In the background of the picture, the artist had painted a carrier with planes taking off. My aunt sat there through the night just looking at the portrait and praying. She later told us, a voice said, "Mom, I am alright, I will survive". Of course, there was a black out of the news and the sinking of the Hornet was not made public for several months. But she knew the Hornet had been sunk and her son did survive. The date this happened coincided with the date of the sinking of the Hornet.

The Hornet, already mortally wounded, is about to be hit by a damaged Japanese bomber, above left. The ship sank shortly after this. The ship was lost on October 7, 1942 during the Battle of Santa Cruz.

Labor Day Hike in the Wyoming Tetons

Table Rock is on the western side of the Teton Range, on far right. This was shot about nine or ten on the way up, facing the sun. Grand Teton is in the center right.

Looking down about two thousand feet below the summit--the flat farmlands of the Teton Valley below. The towns of Alta, Wyoming and Driggs, Idaho are just behind the mountain at center, about ten miles away.

Table Rock at center, above a rock field and a small but dazzling meadow of yellow grasses. Grand Teton just visible to the left of Table Rock. The summit is about fifty yards long and ten yards across. The last mile feels like it is straight up.

Today I went for a hike up Table Rock in the Grand Tetons. This 11,100 foot peak is accessed from the western side of the Tetons. It has a vertical gain of over 4,000 feet and when you get up to 11,000 feet I imagine people from the East or West coast are sucking serious air. The hike was over about 13.5 miles round-trip.

A small glacial lake several thousand feet below the summit. I think is is Solitude Lake.

I left Ammon, Idaho at 5:30 in the morning, started climbing a little after seven in the morning, summited about eleven or so, sat on top long enough to rest up, and went back down. Beautiful day, maybe a hundred people on the trail that I saw altogether in seven or eight hours. The oldest looked about eighty and the youngest less than one. And for the first time in three hikes, I did not see a bear, and this was just fine by me.

Even gimpy-kneed old guys can still make it to the top if they take their time.


Looking east, you can see the Jackson Hole Valley below the Tetons. This is from the summit.

A last look through the trees about four miles below. You can still see Table Rock in the center.

Table Rock looks like a giant doorknob. It is a little lower than the Grand Teton but so close you can see climbers on it. Below the summit I saw glacial lakes and craggy rocks. A good way to spend Labor Day. It took me almost as long to figure out my photo program after I got back, despite the fact that I've used it before. I must be losing my grip in my old age.

This flower had bloomed and was sending out parachute-like seeds into the sky.

Wyoming/Colorado Road Trip

Starting tomorrow, I will be off-line for a few days. My son Matt, my son-in-law Cody, and I are driving down to Denver tomorrow to catch a pair of Chicago Cubs/Colorado Rockies games.

An old photograph of Medicine Bow, Wyoming, circa 1917. This is pretty much how it looked when we lived there, as well, right down to the water tower.

This will be a sentimental trip for us. In 1985, I was hired for my first teaching job in the small town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming (population roughly 700). This was in an oil and uranium mining area of southeastern Wyoming. I absolutely loved my job there, and I fell in love with the rugged beauty of the high plains. Unfortunately, my wife Geri did not like being sixty miles from the nearest larger town. We were sixty miles from Laramie to the east, ninety miles from Casper to the north, and sixty miles from Rawlins to the west. We moved there when my oldest daughter was two weeks old. In 1987, my son Matt was born in Rawlins. We moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1989 and have been here ever since. I'm preparing to enter my 23rd year as a teacher. Medicine Bow was my first four years, and I learned a lot there.

The Virginian Hotel, at one time the tallest building between St. Louis and California on the railroad. It is named for the title character in Owen Wister's famous novel, 'The Virginian'. We may stay here tomorrow night.

We'll drive to Medicine Bow tomorrow, possibly spend the night there, either at the Virginian Hotel or at a nearby BLM campground. The Virginian Hotel is named for the famous Owen Wister novel of the same name. Wister's novel is considered the first great western novel, and he based it in Medicine Bow. In the 1950's, there was a popular television series called 'The Virginian', also based in Medicine Bow.

The next day we'll drive on to Denver. We'll see a game Saturday night and again on Sunday. Also during our Denver stay, I will be visiting Norris King and his wife Marilyn in Arvada, a Denver suburb. Norris was a gunner on a B-17 that was shot down by Swiss anti-aircraft during World War Two, killing seven of the ten men on board. For those who have the Potomac version of my book, Untold Valor, Norris' story is told in detail on pages 177-182.

From the Swiss Internees' Website, here is the info on Norris's crew condensed from the MACR:

B - 17 # 42 - 30126 " Sugarfoot "

Pilot - Lt. Burton English

Attacked by LW Fighters , Badly damaged , on Fire.

Pilot , Copilot , Nav , BB and TG either Killed or Wounded.

As A/C was going down , it crossed Swiss Border and Swiss began Shooting.

A/C exploded

- 3 Crewmen bailed out and Interned. Sgt. Marion Pratt , Sgt. Norris King , Sgt. Joseph Carroll

The remains of Norris's plane 'Sugarfoot', in Switzerland. Norris has a piece of the plane at his home in Colorado, given to him years after the war by the man who shot the plane down.

We'll be returning to Idaho on Monday. I'll make sure to post a story about Norris King and also photos of the baseball game and of Medicine Bow.

Coors Field, Denver, Colorado. Home of the Colorado Rockies. We will be sitting for both games in the 'Rockpile', which are the cheapest seats in the stadium, directly to the center of the photo, behind the pine trees.

Coors Field, Denver. A new stadium with a disinctly vintage feel to it.

I miss Medicine Bow a great deal. If it had been up to me, I'd still be there. It will be a day full of memories tomorrow as we stay there.