FROM PAGE ONE
Saturday, april 17, 2021
REQUEST
CUTLER
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the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The class of 2021 has been impacted more
than any other class from COVID-19. Let us
give them an in-person graduation experience
with all of their classmates. This can be done
safely and will send a message to students,
as well as all Oregonians where our future is
headed,” Maille said in the letter.
COVID-19 dramatically altered the gradua-
tion ceremony last spring for La Grande High
School and the other high schools in Northeast
Oregon. The pandemic forced the school dis-
trict to conduct a drive-thru graduation where
students in vehicles with their families received
their diplomas from school officials and school
board members in front of the high school.
La Grande High Principal Brett Baxter said
a poll of LHS students indicated 55% would
prefer to have a traditional graduation this year.
Baxter said a traditional graduation would be
a return to a sense of normalcy the students
want.
the care team and he got it
from a local congressman,”
Hutchison said.
While Cutler values his
time in the military, he doesn’t
consider his service as particu-
larly heroic. Although his unit
followed in the steps of much
of the island-hopping cam-
paign to drive the Japanese out
of territory they’d conquered
in the Pacific, he didn’t see any
serious action.
“We seemed to be just one
step behind everybody,” he
said. “We weren’t there when
they took the island; we were
there after for the mop-up
operations. I always said I was
lucky.”
He added that most vet-
erans don’t want to discuss the
horrors of war and he’s no dif-
ferent. But he was fortunate in
not having to witness much.
“I didn’t do much fighting,”
he said.
Cutler admits his memory
isn’t what it used to be, but he
does recall boot camp. The
Detroit, Michigan, native took
a train to San Diego after
enlisting in late 1942 — with
his parents’ consent — at age
17. It was at the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot he learned some
valuable lessons.
“I thought it was all a big
game at first until a sergeant
came out one day and said,
‘Did you shave this morning?’
I said, ‘No.’ Big mistake,” he
said. “I was told to shave and I
didn’t do it. I didn’t need to. So
he made me get a razor and sat
down for a whole hour shaving
both sides of my face — a dry
shave. My face was so damned
sore. I learned the hard way to
take orders. … I remembered
that when I was told to do
something, to do it.”
He believes the military has
lightened up in recent years.
“These guys nowadays
never went through what I
went through. When we went
through boot camp, we went
through boot camp,” he said.
While the MCRD was
tough, he quickly learned to
appreciate it.
“Those first two weeks,
I’d have given anything to
get out of there. If I wasn’t
so scared to, I’d have prob-
ably walked out,” Cutler said.
“It took about two weeks of
training, then I thought it was
the greatest place.”
After boot camp and rifle
training, he was assigned to
the Marine Air Wing.
“I was just lucky,” he said.
Exposure in North Powder School District
Students in the North Powder School Dis-
trict returned to online learning Thursday,
April 15, after more than 30 students were
exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19.
Superintendent Lance Dixon in a press
release said the district has been working
closely with the Union County Public Health
Department and is following the department’s
recommendation to take this action.
“We have protocols for this situation, and
are taking extra precaution to ensure the safety
and health of all our students and staff.” Dixon
said. “We encourage our school community to
remain calm, follow health guidelines and work
together to get through this situation.”
The district will stay in the online learning
mode for the week of April 19-22. Students can
return to school on Monday, April 26.
Dixon in the press release said the con-
firmed case was identified earlier this week at
the school, and although some cohorts could
have remained in school, due to the amount
of students and families affected, the district
decided this is the best course of action.
The district also canceled athletic events for
the next few weeks.
Local case counts
The Oregon Health Authority reported on
April 14 the 24th COVID-19 death in Union
County: an 88-year-old woman who tested pos-
itive Feb. 22 and died April 14. She had under-
lying conditions, according to OHA, and the
state was working to confirm the location of
the death.
Union County has 1,409 cases total, with
nine new cases reported April 14 and three
more April 15. Wallowa County’s total as of
April 15 was 156. Five people there have died
from COVID-19.
Baker County’s COVID-19 surge con-
tinued this week, with 14 new cases April 13,
the highest one-day total since late December
2020, and the third-most since the pandemic
began.
Nancy Staten, director of the Baker County
Health Department, described the situation as
“alarming” during an interview April 13. She
said a large majority of the county’s cases over
the past few weeks — including those the OHA
reported April 13 — have been traced to par-
ties and other social gatherings.
“People have COVID fatigue,” Staten said.
“People want to gather.”
But if too many residents cease taking pre-
cautions — as the recent rise in cases, and their
origins, suggest is happening — the effects can
be widespread, Staten said.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise statewide
as well, with the OHA reporting 816 new
cases April 14 and 733 April 15. Oregon’s total
number of cases as of April 15 stood at 172,931.
The virus as of April 15 has claimed a total of
2,455 lives in Oregon.
The Oregon Health Authority also reported
Region 9 — Baker, Malheur, Morrow, Uma-
tilla, Union and Wallowa counties — has less
than 50% capacity for intensive care unit beds,
with nine out of 17 occupied for the region.
But as of April 15, only one of those was a
COVID-19 patient, down from two the day
before.
Out of the region’s 136 staffed non-ICU
beds, 54 remain open.
— EO Media Group members contributed to
this article.
POOLS
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grandmother who wanted to
know if the pool would be
open for her grandchildren
(this summer),” Jungling said.
Fewer people will be
allowed in the outdoor pool
because of state social dis-
tancing rules. For example,
the capacity for recreational
swims will be 30 people.
Swimmers at recreation
sessions will be limited to
between 60 and 90 minutes,
to allow for more people to
use the pool, Jungling said.
Another COVID-19 rule
requires masks to be worn at
the Elgin pool facility at all
times except when swimmers
are in the water.
tHE OBSErVEr — 5A
The first plane he was in
was a Curtiss SBC Helldiver,
two-seat scout bomber. Con-
sidered obsolete before the
outbreak of the war, it was
kept well away from enemy
fighters. The pilot took the
front cockpit, with the gunner/
radioman in the rear. That’s
where Cutler got his first ride.
“The guy just stuck me in
there and said, ‘We’re going to
see if you can make it or not.
Here’s a bag.’ He strapped me
in and said ... ‘If you get sick,
throw up in this bag.’ So I got
in the plane and we got up
there and he started to roll the
plane, and I was just thrilled to
death,” Cutler said. “I enjoyed
it. Then he went right, straight
down and I started calling
out (the altitude.) But looking
back, that was all fun.”
After it was determined he
could handle flying, he was
sent to aerial gunner school
and qualified among the top of
his class. But radio school in
Hawaii tripped him up.
“I flunked, so I didn’t get
my wings,” he said. “So I went
over as a spare aerial gunner
and went to Midway.”
His arrival there months
after the crucial June 1942
Allied victory was as one of
the replacements sent to the
island where much of the Japa-
nese Navy had been destroyed.
He handled bombs at the air-
field there and machine guns
he was familiar with.
After a quick return to
Hawaii, he was shipped to the
Solomon Islands, the site of
another important Allied vic-
tory. But again, it was after the
island had been retaken from
the Japanese. There, he flew
again, but spent most of his
time disrupting Japanese sup-
plies and equipment.
“We kept their food line
and their ammunition line
down,” he said. “We’d just go
out there and put gasoline on
their rice fields and shoot up
all their boats.”
Cutler believes his failure
to get his wings may have
saved his life, since about half
of the radiomen/gunners he
was aware of didn’t survive
the war.
“I just lucked out,” he said.
“I was in the right place at the
right time.”
Cutler also recalled
amusing — or not — incidents
from his time in the Pacific.
He said fellow Marines wanted
more than their rationed one
beer a day.
“They made this ‘torpedo
juice’ from berries or I don’t
know what,” he said of the
fermented and highly intoxi-
cating rotgut.
“A guy said, ‘Here, try a
sip.’ I didn’t want to, but even-
tually I did. The guy got me to
take another and another and
that’s the last I remember until
I woke up after having passed
out in the middle of a runway
on my way back to my tent. …
I’ll swear to this day that the
tent flipped over. Every time
I’d get in my bunk, I’d end up
falling on the floor.”
After that, he swore off
hard liquor. He has a beer now
and then, but no hard stuff.
Just before the war ended,
he was shipped stateside. It
was at a Marine base in Cal-
ifornia where he married his
first wife, Betty. After Cutler
was mustered out as a cor-
poral, the couple moved to
Ohio where she was from.
They had two sons and a
daughter and were married for
about 40 years before Betty
died of cancer in the 1980s.
The family had moved to
the Portland area in the early
1950s, where Cutler got a
job with the Army National
Guard, first as a civilian and
later enlisted in the Guard. He
worked with the Army Corps
of Engineers and was a tech-
nical sergeant in charge of
building airfields and equip-
ment procurement.
When his National Guard
unit was mobilized for the
Korean War, at first Cutler
wanted to go. But he didn’t
want to be separated from his
family.
“They said, ‘They can’t go
with you … they’re going to
Japan. … We’ll just get them
there and they’ll live on the
base. You’ll get to go over
there once in a while.’ So I
decided I didn’t want to go,”
Cutler said.
He met his current wife,
Kate, in Sandy, where she used
to swim in a pool he cleaned.
“It was the bathing suit that
caught his eye,” she said.
In retrospect, Cutler highly
values his time in the ser-
vice and thinks the experience
would be valuable to all young
people.
“I think it was fantastic. I
would go through the Marine
Corps again. They taught
us to follow orders and help
one another,” he said. “Every
young man — who can —
should serve his four years —
to learn something, to learn to
be a man.”
The pool will be open
Monday through Saturday to
the public, and will be avail-
able for special events on Sun-
days. Jungling said one of
the biggest issues he is facing
is hiring lifeguards, which
are proving hard to find. He
encouraged anyone interested
in working as a lifeguard to
contact him.
Veterans’ Memorial Pool,
like the Elgin pool, will be
open Monday through Sat-
urday this summer as it is the
rest of the year. Social dis-
tancing standards will remain
in place. These include limits
on the number of people who
can be in the pool at one time
for activities, such as recre-
ational swims.
Limits also apply for lap
swim sessions, during which
only one swimmer is allowed
per lane. Lap swimmers are
limited to one hour when
there are people waiting to
work out in the eight-lane
pool, said Breeanna Hughes,
the head lifeguard at the
indoor pool in La Grande’s
Pioneer Park.
Restrictions also apply to
the pool center’s two dressing
rooms. Each has four sta-
tions, all of which are at least
6 feet apart. Only one person
can normally be at each sta-
tion, but two are allowed if
the swimmers are family
members.
People at Veterans’ Memo-
rial Pool also must wear
masks at all times except
when they are swimming.
The same mask rules apply
at the Sam-O-Swim Center
where similar social dis-
tancing standards are in place.
Paula Moe, aquatics director
for the Baker County YMCA,
said swimmers are not com-
plaining though.
“They have been won-
derful,” Moe said. “They just
want to be in the water.”
She said the more than
four months the Sam-O-Swim
Center was closed in 2020 in
the spring and summer was a
terrible time.
“It was awful. It was hard
on people who wanted to
exercise, needed therapy or
had nowhere to go,” Moe said.
The pandemic also led
to the closure of Cove’s out-
door warm springs pool. The
Observer was not able to con-
firm the status of the pool by
deadline Friday.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
u.S. Marine Corps veteran lee Cutler stands under the national flag and the
Marine Corps flag that fly regularly outside his Joseph home Wednesday, april
7, 2021. the 96-year-old World War ii and Korean War veteran received new
flags for his birthday, april 8.