Wednesday, February 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
5
Pat Bowe: a heroic life of service
By Craig Rullman
Correspondent
Sisters resident Pat Bowe
is no stranger to sacrifice.
Raised in Beaverton,
Oregon, Bowe volunteered
for the U.S. Army as a young
man, and served two tours
in Vietnam with an infantry
reconnaissance platoon, as
part of the 173rd Airborne
Brigade. In Vietnam, Bowe
was severely wounded twice,
received a Bronze Star with
a combat V device for valor,
and ultimately returned to
Oregon where he served 33
years in law enforcement.
Soft-spoken, and admira-
bly humble, Bowe recently
PHOTO PROVIDED
Pat Bowe in Vietnam.
sat down with The Nugget to
discuss his extraordinary life
of service and sacrifice.
“You get to the point
where you don’t even care
about the enemy, you are just
trying to survive the living
conditions,” Bowe said of his
time in Vietnam, where the
173rd Airborne initially oper-
ated out of Bien Hoa.
In addition to monsoons
— great deluges of sea-
sonal rains that defeated all
attempts to stay dry — the
southern portions of Vietnam
where Bowe was deployed
were thick with leaches, poi-
sonous snakes, and triple can-
opy jungle that made every
aspect of fighting, and every-
day survival, more difficult.
Between 1966 and 1967,
Bowe and his 40-man pla-
toon of reconnaissance sol-
diers were charged with con-
ducting long-range patrols
into the jungle and bush,
where they set up ambushes,
scouted enemy positions, and
engaged in sustained combat
against a hardened and deter-
mined enemy.
“ We w e r e a l w a y s
engaged,” Pat said.
Bowe noted that during
World War II the average vet-
eran served 30 days a year
in combat. In Vietnam that
average jumped to 265 days.
“The guys we were up
against were strike troops,”
Bowe said. “The elite of the
North Vietnamese Army.
They really knew how to
fight. It was nothing like
World War II. It was all jun-
gle fighting. It was hell in a
hand-basket.”
The 173rd Airborne, a sto-
ried outfit, also accomplished
the first combat parachute
jump since the Korean War.
Bowe and his comrades were
dropped in an area near the
Cambodian border, where
there was a large North
Vietnamese Army presence,
and where the 173rd was
meant to set up a blocking
position while the 4th U.S.
Infantry Division, the “legs”
in infantry parlance, attacked
from a different direction.
Bowe was severely
wounded in combat, shot in
the stomach, the bullet tear-
ing through his body and
damaging his lung, liver,
and blowing out a rib. After
almost eight months of con-
valescence, he returned to the
field, where he was wounded
a second time, struck by
shrapnel from a grenade
while attacking a Viet Cong
base camp. For his actions
that day, Pat was awarded a
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Pat Bowe has had a long and distinguished career in public service.
Bronze Star for Valor.
Typically modest, Bowe
told The Nugget, “Well, the
citation says a lot of things,
but it never looks like what
actually happened.”
Bowe still carries shrapnel
in his body from his time in
combat, which also means
that should he need it, he can
never make use of an MRI.
When Bowe left the U.S.
Army he returned to Oregon
and became a sheriff’s deputy
in Marion County. He served
Marion County in a number
of capacities, from patrol dep-
uty, to detective, before later-
alling to the newly formed
Keizer Police Department.
Bowe was among the first
officers hired by Keizer, and
worked as a patrol officer,
detective, patrol sergeant,
and detective sergeant. He
retired from the Keizer Police
Department as a lieutenant,
and for a time served as the
interim chief of police.
But Pat Bowe’s service to
his fellow citizens wasn’t fin-
ished. After retiring from the
Keizer Police, he returned to
Marion County and served
10 more years as a sheriff’s
deputy. And he still wasn’t
finished. Bowe served
on the planning commis-
sion for five years, the city
council for two years, and
after moving to Sisters sev-
eral years ago with his wife
of 48 years, Sandy, he has
served on the Sisters School
See BOWE on page 26
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