LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1861, Union Gen. John C. Fre-
mont instituted martial law in Mis-
souri and declared slaves there
to be free. (However, Fremont’s
emancipation order was counter-
manded by President Abraham
Lincoln.)
In 1941, during World War II,
German forces approaching Lenin-
grad cut off the remaining rail line
out of the city.
In 1945, U.S. Gen. Douglas
MacArthur arrived in Japan
to set up Allied occupation
headquarters.
In 1963, the “Hot Line” com-
munications link between Wash-
ington and Moscow went into
operation.
In 1967, the Senate confirmed
the appointment of Thurgood
Marshall as the first Black justice on
the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1983, Guion S. Bluford Jr.
became the first Black American
astronaut to travel in space as he
blasted off aboard the Challenger.
In 1991, Azerbaijan declared
its independence, joining the
stampede of republics seeking to
secede from the Soviet Union.
In 1992, the television series
“Northern Exposure” won six
Emmy Awards, including best
drama series, while “Murphy
Brown” received three Emmys,
including best comedy series.
In 1993, “The Late Show with
David Letterman” premiered on
CBS-TV.
In 1997, Americans received
word of the car crash in Paris that
claimed the lives of Princess Diana,
her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and
their driver, Henri Paul. (Because of
the time difference, it was August
31 where the crash occurred.)
In 2005, a day after Hurricane
Katrina hit, floods were covering
80 percent of New Orleans, looting
continued to spread and rescuers
in helicopters and boats picked up
hundreds of stranded people.
In 2007, in a serious breach of
nuclear security, a B-52 bomber
armed with six nuclear warheads
flew cross-country unnoticed; the
Air Force later punished 70 people.
In 2020, the United States com-
pleted its withdrawal from Afghan-
istan, ending America’s longest
war with the Taliban back in power,
as Air Force transport planes car-
ried a remaining contingent of
troops from Kabul airport; offi-
cials put the number of Ameri-
cans remaining in Afghanistan at
under 200 and said they would
keep working to get those people
out. After watching the last U.S.
planes disappear into the sky over
Afghanistan, Taliban fighters fired
their guns into the air, celebrating
victory after a 20-year insurgency.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Eliza-
beth Ashley is 83. Actor Ben Jones
is 81. Actor John Kani is 80. Car-
toonist R. Crumb is 79. Olympic
gold medal skier Jean-Claude Killy
is 79. Comedian Lewis Black is 74.
Actor Timothy Bottoms is 71. Actor
David Paymer is 68. Jazz musician
Gerald Albright is 65. Actor Michael
Chiklis is 59. Actor Michael Michele
is 56. Country singer Sherrie Austin
is 51. Rock singer-musician Lars
Frederiksen (Rancid) is 51. Actor
Cameron Diaz is 50. TV personality
Lisa Ling is 49. Rock singer-musi-
cian Aaron Barrett (Reel Big Fish) is
48. Actor Raúl Castillo is 45. Actor
Michael Gladis is 45. MLB pitcher
Adam Wainwright is 41. Former
tennis player Andy Roddick is 40.
Singer Rachael Price (Lake Street
Dive) is 37. Rock musician Ryan
Ross is 36. Actor Johanna Braddy is
35. Actor Cameron Finley is 35.
CORRECTIONS
The Observer works hard to be
accurate and sincerely regrets
any errors. If you notice a
mistake in the paper, please call
541-963-3161.
LOTTERY
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TuESday, auguST 30, 2022
Historic military convoy visits Wallowa County La Grande
man
sentenced
to 15 years
in prison
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — They weren’t
pulling into Saigon or Da
Nang, but the convoy of 24
historic military vehicles
that pulled into Joseph could
well have staged a similar
entrance some 50 years ago.
The Military Vehicle
Preservation Associa-
tion’s biennial convoy on
Thursday, Aug. 25, left
Baker City and headed
through the mountains for
a lunch stop at the Hells
Canyon Overlook before tra-
versing the windy National
Forest Road 39 to Joseph.
“Where’s the diesel?”
asked Dan McCluskey,
convoy commander, as soon
as he stepped out of his Viet-
nam-era three-quarter-ton
M37 cargo truck.
He hadn’t noticed that the
Chevron station in Joseph
does indeed offer diesel fuel,
critical for many of the con-
voy’s vehicles.
About 50 people — 30%
of whom are Vietnam vet-
erans, along with one World
War II vet — accompanied
the rigs.
The convoy began Aug.
14 after gathering near the
home of Mark Sigrist near
Kamiah, Idaho. Sigrist, who
conceived the idea of this
year’s convoy, died in 2020
before it could take place.
“But his son is here,
keeping the dream alive,”
McCluskey said.
After a couple hours of
a static display in the field
behind the Indian Lodge
Joel Rogers
enters guilty plea
for multiple sex
offenses
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
A convoy of 24 historic military vehicles stops at the Indian Lodge Motel in Joseph as it passes through
Wallowa County on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, before going on to spend the night at the Eagle Cap
Shooters Association’s gun range north of Enterprise.
Motel, the convoy was
back on the road to spend
the night at the Eagle Cap
Shooters Association’s gun
range north of Enterprise.
The next day, the plan
was to head north to Lew-
iston, Idaho, where some
would leave the convoy for
home.
McCluskey may not be
a military vet, but he’s cer-
tainly a veteran with mil-
itary vehicles. His father,
who was a WWII vet,
bought a jeep shortly after
the war.
“I grew up in that jeep,”
he said.
His own first vehicle also
was a jeep, a rig that had
seen WWII service.
All the vehicles are pri-
vately owned, McCluskey
said, adding that the
owners pay for fuel and
their own food.
“Each individual pays his
own way,” he said.
The MVPA plans a
convoy every two years.
Usually the trips last 28 days
and cover 3,000 miles. This
time, the run was for two
weeks and 1,600 miles.
The association, founded
in 1976, is a nonprofit with
more than 100 affiliates
worldwide “dedicated to
providing an international
organization for military
vehicle enthusiasts, histo-
rians, preservationists and
collectors interested in the
acquisition, restoration,
preservation, safe opera-
tion and public education of
historic military transport,”
according to its mission.
The convoy’s schedule
included visits to the Lewis
and Clark Trail, Mount
Rainier National Park,
Mount St. Helens, Mount
Hood, Washington’s Pacific
Coast, Oregon Trail sites,
Hells Canyon and other sig-
nificant military sites.
Occasionally,
McCluskey said, members
from MVPA affiliations
along the route join in for
segments of the journey.
MVPA has affiliate clubs
in Woodland, Washington,
and in Wilsonville.
He said the vehicles —
from World War II, Korea,
Vietnam, Desert Storm and
current eras — can’t travel
faster than 35 mph.
“That’s our max speed,”
he said. “A lot of times it’s a
lot less because we are going
up over hills. These old mil-
itary vehicles are definitely
not doing 60 mph going over
the grades.”
Air tanker base helping combat Crockets Knob Fire
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande Air Tanker Base
next to the La Grande/
Union County Airport was
a beehive of aeronautical
activity last week.
Air tankers for the U.S.
Forest Service and the
Oregon Department For-
estry fighting the Crockets
Knob Fire, 19 miles south
of Prairie City, continuously
flew into the La Grande
base on Aug. 25-26 to pick
up loads of fire retardant.
The flights from La
Grande to the fire and back
stopped on Saturday, Aug.
27, but may resume in the
near future.
A John Day Interagency
Dispatch Center represen-
tative told The Observer
on Aug. 28 that air tankers
dropping fire retardant on
the Crockets Knob Fire may
begin making regular strops
at the La Grande Tanker
Base again this week
depending on decisions
made by the incident com-
manders of the fire.
“It will depend on fire
The Observer, File
Neptune, a tanker plane company out of Montana, uses the La
Grande/Union County Airport to refuel its planes and reload more
retardant on July 27, 2015. In 2022, air tankers for the U.S. Forest
Service and the Oregon Department Forestry fighting the Crockets
Knob Fire, 19 miles south of Prairie City, continuously flew into the
La Grande base on Aug. 25-26 to pick up loads of fire retardant.
behavior,” a spokesperson
for the John Day Inter-
agency Dispatch Center
said.
The Crockets Knob Fire
has grown to 1,447 acres
and is zero percent con-
tained, according to a press
release issued by the federal
government on Aug. 28.
The fleet of planes that
have been coming in to pick
up retardant fuel at the La
Grande Air Tanker Base
consists of three large air
tankers and two single-en-
gine air tankers, according
to Craig Gilbert, of the Blue
Mountain Interagency Dis-
patch Center. The large air
tankers carry between 3,000
and 4,000 gallons of retar-
dant, and the single-engine
tankers have a 800-gallon
capacity.
The tankers were at the
airport for at least 30 min-
utes if they needed to be
refueled, Gilbert said.
The large air tankers, in
the evening, have been kept
at an air tanker base in Red-
mond, while the smaller sin-
gle-engine planes are kept
at the La Grande Air Tanker
Base.
The Crockets Knob
Fire is not threatening any
structures and is expected
to be contained by Sept.
30, according to inciweb.
nwcg.gov, a U.S. Forest Ser-
vice incident information
service.
The fire was ignited by
lightning on Aug. 22 and
grew the most on Aug. 25
when it expanded from 225
to 1,000 acres.
There are considerable
challenges that firefighters
are facing while working
to contain the Crockets
Knob Fire, according to
inci.web. The fire is in
rugged terrain that is diffi-
cult to reach, and it has an
abundance of fuel to burn,
in the form of exceedingly
tall brush, which is more
than 10 feet tall in most
areas, and heavy dead and
downed materials on the
forest floor.
Fires burning in Eagle Cap Wilderness
Wallowa County Chieftain
BAKER CITY — Five light-
ning-sparked fires are burning in the
Eagle Cap Wilderness, according
to a Sunday, Aug. 28, press release
from the Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest.
The fires are burning in remote
areas and pose minimal threats to
private property and other values, the
release said. Firefighters are closely
monitoring fire activity and using
strategies to protect homes and prop-
erty near the blaze.
The 15-acre Sturgill Fire and the
adjacent 324 Fire are in the North
Minam Drainage and burning in
mixed conifer. The 20-acre Nebo
Fire is in the Upper Lick Creek
Drainage, 13 miles miles southeast
of Joseph. The one-10th of an acre
Goat Mountain 1 and adjacent Goat
Mountain 2 fires are in the Upper
Goat Creek Drainage, 9 miles south
of Lostine and have shown very little
fire activity in the last two days, the
release said.
All of the fires were started by
lightning strikes on Aug. 23.
The fires are being managed for
multiple resource benefits, including
reducing fuel loading and enhance-
ment of forest health, according
to the release. Matthew Burks, a
public affairs specialist with the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest, said
the fires are being allowed to burn
so that they can consume fuels,
reducing the likelihood of larger fires
next summer when conditions may
be drier than they are now.
“They will clean out fuels,” he
said.
Burks said the burning will
improve elk habitat by creating more
open spaces, adding that as long as
the fires, which are burning close to
the ground, remain nonthreatening
they will be allowed to continue.
However, should this change, steps
will be taken to extinguish them.
There are no closures, but the
public is advised to use caution in
these areas and can expect to see
smoke and fire activity. Signs are
posted at affected trailheads.
IN BRIEF
Free services available
for some cities, counties,
nonprofit organizations
ENTERPRISE — The North-
east Oregon Economic Development
District is offering up to 20 hours of
free help to cities, counties and non-
profits in Baker, Union and Wallowa
counties.
The free services include project
and organizational development,
grant prospecting, grant writing and
project administration services.
The services are possible due to
funding from the Oregon Legislature
and an Oregon foundation, according
to a press release from NEOEDD.
NEOEDD will provide services
based on available staff time, an
organization’s readiness to proceed
and the timing of grant deadlines.
“Our goal is to assist as many
organizations as possible; however,
our funding is limited, so we may not
be able to serve every eligible organi-
zation,” said Lisa Dawson, NEOEDD
executive director.
The money from the Oregon Leg-
islature supports services to cities
with populations under 2,500, coun-
ties with populations under 15,000,
and special districts in these cities
and counties. NEOEDD will use the
same criteria to prioritize the free
services.
Cities, counties and nonprofits can
submit a request for services online
at https://bit.ly/3R6nIZy.
“We may also refer organiza-
tions to Sequoia Consulting for help
to identify appropriate grant sources
for a project or to prepare an organi-
zation to apply for and successfully
manage a grant,” Dawson said.
More information is available by
emailing Chantal Ivenso at chantal-
ivenso@neoedd.org or by calling
541-426-3598, ext. 4.
— The Observer
By ISABELLA CROWLEY
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A La
Grande man was sentenced
to 15 years in prison on
Wednesday, Aug. 24, for
sex crimes with a minor,
according to a press
release from the Union
County District Attorney’s
Office.
Joel Rogers, 20, pled
guilty and was con-
victed on felony charges
of first-degree rape, two
counts of second-degree
sexual abuse and luring a
minor during a settlement
conference with the victim
and her family. Chief
Deputy District Attorney
Ryan Rodighiero prose-
cuted the case, and Rogers
was represented by his
court-appointed counsel —
La Grande attorney Jared
Boyd.
“Ultimately this was a
sentence the victim was
happy with. We always
strive to balance what the
victim wants and what’s
just and in the interest of
public safety,” Rodighiero
said.
Rogers met the victim
in July 2021 through
Snapchat — a multi-
media instant messaging
app — and was in contact
with her until September
of that year, according
to the press release. The
victim was 15 years old
at the time. During the
three months they were
in contact, Rogers con-
tinued messaging the
victim — asking her to
send nude photos, sharing
nude photos of himself and
sending sexually explicit
messages.
He sexually assaulted
the victim on three sepa-
rate occasions and during
one of the instances stran-
gled her.
“On March 5, 2022, the
victim’s father contacted
Rogers who said he knew
he made a mistake and
asked the victim’s father
to not call the police,”
Rodighiero wrote in the
press release.
A few days later, her
father reported the sexual
assault to police.
Mt. Emily Safe Center
— a child abuse interven-
tion center based in La
Grande — conducted a
forensic interview with the
victim. During his inter-
view with police, Rogers
admitted to having sexual
intercourse and choking
the victim.
A Union County grand
jury was convened in April
to review the evidence and
Rogers was indicted on
multiple sex offenses. Two
days later, he was arrested
and lodged in the Union
County Jail. Circuit Court
Judge Thomas Powers set
bail at $300,000.
First-degree rape comes
with a minimum manda-
tory sentencing of eight
years and four months in
jail under Oregon Measure
11. Rogers’ prison sentence
will be followed by 10
years of post-prison super-
vision. He is required to
register as a sex offender,
engage in sex offender
treatment and have no con-
tact with the victim.
“The District Attorney’s
Office would also like to
extend a special thank
you to the friend who
encourage the victim to
come forward, the victim’s
parents who supported her
through the process, and
most of all, to the victim
in this case who had the
courage to come forward,”
Rodighiero wrote in the
press release.