Thanks to Black Hills Energy for their assistance with the installation of our emergency notification siren at Black Hawk. This project required outside expertise and equipment; we appreciate their willingness to donate their time, professional skills and equipment to this critical endeavor.
Mr. Wright was born in Valentine, NE and raised in California. After high school Mr. Wright knew when the war started, he had to go. He didn't want to go into the regular Army, so he volunteered for the ski troops. He was accepted and that started his Army career.
Mr. Wright trained and worked in Washington, California, Colorado, Alaska, Texas, and the mountainous ranges in Europe.
Early on in his training Mr. Wright can remember the maneuvers at Jolon, California. “First night out I thought I had found a good place to sleep. In the morning I heard everybody going to mess, but I could not see anything! It seems I slept next to a poison oak bush. I was in such bad shape, I had to be taken to the hospital. It took almost a week before I was released. “
Another story Mr. Wright remembers takes place in August of 1943. They were going to hit the “beach” and there was only room for one landing craft at a time which meant the should expect heavy casualties. It was foggy and raining so the visibility was nil. They had about 100 feet of beach to cross, then a cliff to climb. Just as they reached the top they heard gunfire of to one side, so they were told to dig in and get ready for a Japanese attack. The ridge they were on was solid rock so they couldn’t dig a very deep foxhole. His buddy and he managed to dig a hole to fit one soldier. It soon filled up with water, but they took turns lying in ice cold water and tried to get a little rest. The gunfire stopped, but they could not see more than a few feet in front of them. They were sure that the Japanese were about ready to jump in their hole. As it turned out, the gunfire was from friendly troops. The Japanese left by submarine the day before they landed.
Early in World War II, the world heard about two heavily armored Russian divisions invading Finland, only to be crushed by Finnish troops on skis. The president of the National Ski Patrol in the U.S. convinced the War Department that the U.S. Army should work to develop a similar unit, and the Army created three mountain warfare divisions; training troops in rock climbing, skiing, and mountaineering. The division started out as an experiment to train skiers and climbers to fight in the most difficult, mountainous terrain. Their training began at Camp Hale, near Pando, Colorado included: skiing, snowshoeing and rock climbing. They also learned cold-weather survival tactics, such as keeping warm by building snow caves. The men lived in the mountains for weeks, working in altitudes of up to 13,500 feet, in five to six feet of snow and in temperatures that dropped to 20 degrees below zero at night. Only one, the 10th Mountain Division, saw combat in World War II. In four months, the division had one of the highest casualty rates of any in the war.
Mr. Wright said that we lost a lot of men. A lot of things happen, but I will only remember the ones that had some humor. We had a lot of enemy encounters and more climbing than skiing, but we accomplished our mission. Our unit was then sent to the Yugoslavia border to supervise the turning over of arms from the Yugoslavia army. What a laugh, no way were they going to comply with that. As we went forward, we spent a couple of weeks touring the little mountain villages in that area. From there we were shipped back to the states for discharge.
An interesting fact about the individuals from the 10th Mountain Division they were skiers and soldiers, trained to use their mountain skills in combat, and when they returned from war they helped build the American ski industry as we know it. In the postwar years, many veterans of the 10th returned to Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, and formed the foundation of the U.S. ski industry. They worked as ski instructors, ski school directors, Olympic and college coaches, and helped found resort areas in Colorado, such as Winter Park, Arapahoe Basin and Vale.
This is exactly what Mr. Wright did too. He married and moved to Aspen, Colorado where he was a ski instructor and contractor for 30 years. He retired to New Mexico where his son lives - before later moving to Piedmont, SD with his daughter.
Mr. Wright has 2 children, 2 grandchild and 1 great grandchild. His hobbies are skiing and mountain climbing.
Photo courtesy of Tim Potts. (Deputy Chris Williams)
The South Dakota Game Fish and Parks, Sturgis Police, Sturgis PAL and the Meade County Sheriff’s Office joined forces at Bear Butte State Park on June 3, 2017.
The event had over 80 participants; working with kids ages 5-17 in an effort to get them to appreciate (being outdoors) the opportunities afforded by working with mentors in several activities; archery, BB gun shoot, fishing, trapping, and animal identification.
Nice job deputy Chris Williams and all other volunteers who participated.
Commissioner Galen Niederwerder
The Meade County Commission held its first meeting of June on Wednesday, the 14th.
Auctioneer Bob Bertolotto appeared to give a report and a check in the amount of $7,882 for surplus items the county sold at the recent joint school/city/county auction.
We started preliminary work on the 2018 budget, but took no action. We’ll start the heavy lifting at our next meeting. Health insurance, as it is for every individual, company, or governmental body is going to be the hardest thing to figure out. Meade County has a small group plan with Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield that, because of high claim history the past three years, is looking at a huge premium increase.
The engineering estimates provided by the state Department of Transportation for the Black Hawk sidewalk project came in higher than expected. This project, you might remember, is being done through a grant administered by the DOT, which approved only so much money for the project; any additional costs above that amount have to be borne by the county. This project was approved by the county in 2013, but because of foot-dragging by the DOT, inflation has made the project more expensive. We approved the estimates, but are hopeful the bids will come in less.
The one bid to construct the hoop building to house sand at Piedmont was rejected. Meade County Highway Superintendent Lincoln Shuck will be looking at a different design that hopefully will cost less.
We approved the 2017 pavement marking agreement and right-of-way certificates for the Nemo bridge project.
We approved the special event alcoholic beverage license for the 2nd Annual Brandon Delzer Bull Riding event, which will be held June 24th.
We adjourned until our next meeting on June 28th. God Bless Meade County.
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