4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
Trump to call families of slain
soldiers, questions Obama
By CALVIN
WOODWARD and
JONATHAN LEMIRE
Associated Press
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Liberty Theatre has been operating at a deficit, but
is hoping to break even this year.
Theatre: Grant
will allow theater to
purchase, install its
own sound system
Continued from Page 1A
Challenges
Crockett highlighted sev-
eral challenges the theater
faces, including ongoing
maintenance of the 1920s-era
building and the need to bet-
ter understand how to bring
people through the doors. In
tracking who bought tickets
and attended shows last year,
Liberty staff found that most
attendees lived in Clatsop
County and only 28 percent
were from outside the area.
Industry standard is closer
to a 50-50 split of locals and
visitors, Crockett said. “So
that gives us some idea of
what work we can do.”
Councilors commented
on the variety of the theater’s
recent offerings. Crockett
said the theater is simply try-
ing out ideas: What do peo-
ple want to see? What works?
What doesn’t work?
“I appreciate the diversity
of shows there,” City Coun-
cilor Zetty Nemlowill told
Crockett, saying she’d been
to a show by folk-rock band
Blind Pilot and chaperoned
a school field trip to a ballet
performance.
“The inclusivity is really
important,” Nemlowill added.
“There are school children
who had never been there
before, and that’s really cool
that they could go out and
see a live show in a beautiful
venue like that.”
Changes
An $8,000 grant from the
city will be spent on out-of-
town marketing, trying to
draw in more visitors. Another
grant will allow the theater to
purchase and install its own
sound system soon. Crock-
ett said they have had to rent
sound equipment from Port-
land for every performance.
Getting their own system in
place will save them several
hours of setup time and about
$1,500 per show.
Despite the theater’s tight
budget, Crockett thinks it is
likely she will begin to add
stage crew and an adminis-
trative assistant soon. Having
these people in place would
free up more of her time to
devote to fundraising and
outreach.
Much further down the
road, the theater staff and
board hope to renovate the
backstage area so the Lib-
erty can accommodate
plays, operas and Broadway
productions.
Groups interested in com-
ing to the Liberty to put on
these types of shows have
left disappointed after see-
ing the theater’s limitations,
Crockett said. Groups she
has approached, hoping they
could work with the existing
backstage area, have told her
“no.” To renovate and rede-
sign that back area to accom-
modate set changes, actors
and equipment would “cata-
pult us up to a completely dif-
ferent level,” she said.
City Councilor Cindy
Price noted that Crockett
and Astoria Library Director
Jimmy Pearson were hired
around the same time.
“Just as we’ve seen this
transformation, real transfor-
mation, begin in earnest at
the library with Jimmy Pear-
son’s library directorship …
I’ve seen the same thing at
the Liberty Theatre with your
directorship there,” she said.
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Donald Trump will call
the families of four soldiers
killed this month in Niger, the
White House says, as Trump
again casts doubt on whether
his predecessor appropriately
consoled the families of mil-
itary personnel who died in
war.
Trump in a radio interview
today suggested that President
Barack Obama did not call
John Kelly, a former Marine
general who is now Trump’s
chief of staff, when his son,
Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly,
was killed in Afghanistan in
2010.
“I think I’ve called every
family of someone who’s
died,” Trump told Fox News
radio host Brian Kilmeade.
“As far as other representa-
tives, I don’t know. You could
ask General Kelly, did he get a
call from Obama?”
A White House official
later said that Obama did not
call Kelly but did not imme-
diately respond to questions
about whether the former
president reached out in some
other fashion.
Trump had said in a news
conference Monday he had
written letters to the families
of four soldiers killed in the
Niger ambush and planned
to call them, crediting him-
self with taking extra steps in
honoring the dead properly.
“Most of them didn’t make
calls,” he said of his predeces-
sors. He said it’s possible that
Obama “did sometimes,” but
“other presidents did not call.”
Trump’s suggestion that
his predecessors fell short
in that duty brought a vis-
ceral reaction from those
who witnessed those grieving
encounters.
The record is plain that
presidents reached out to fam-
ilies of the dead and to the
wounded, often with their
presence as well as by let-
ter and phone. The path to
Walter Reed National Mili-
tary Medical Center and other
military hospitals, as well as
to the Dover, Delaware, Air
Force Base where the remains
of fallen soldiers are often
brought, was a familiar one to
Obama, George W. Bush and
others.
Bush, even at the height of
two wars, “wrote all the fami-
lies of the fallen,” said Freddy
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Barack Obama, right, salutes as an Army team carries the transfer case con-
taining the remains of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., during a casualty return in
2009 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Ford, spokesman for the for-
mer president. Ford said Bush
also called or met “hundreds,
if not thousands” of family
members of the war dead.
Retired Gen. Martin E.
Dempsey, former chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, con-
firmed those contacts, tweet-
ing: “POTUS 43 & 44 and first
ladies cared deeply, worked
tirelessly for the serving, the
fallen and their families. Not
politics. Sacred Trust.”
The White House said let-
ters would go out and calls
would be made to the fam-
ilies of the slain soldiers in
Niger today. The family of
Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, one
of the soldiers, was told by
an Army casualty assistance
officer to expect a phone call
from Trump by this evening,
said Will Wright, the soldier’s
brother.
“He asked if the family
would like to be contacted
and if we’d be available to
speak with the president,”
Will Wright said from Lyons,
Georgia, where funeral ser-
vices for his brother were
held Sunday. “My mother and
father said yes.”
The soldier’s family in
rural southeast Georgia has
received “immeasurable sup-
port from the administration”
and the military since he was
killed Oct. 4, Will Wright
said. He added that it would
be “a great honor” to hear
from Trump personally.
“If I got to speak to him,
I’d tell him he’s got the hard-
est job in the world,” Will
Wright said. “I know his heart
is heavy because that’s his job,
and I’d tell him not to let my
brother’s sacrifice deter him.”
Trump addressed the mat-
ter when asked why he had
not spoken about the four sol-
diers killed in Niger. They
died when militants thought to
be affiliated with the Islamic
State group ambushed them
while they were patrolling in
unarmored trucks with Nige-
rien troops.
“I actually wrote let-
ters individually to the sol-
diers we’re talking about, and
they’re going to be going out
either today or tomorrow,” he
said, meaning he wrote to the
families of the fallen soldiers.
He did not explain why letters
had not been sent yet, more
than a week after the attack.
“If you look at President
Obama and other presidents,
most of them didn’t make
calls,” Trump said.
Press Secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders said later
that Trump “wasn’t criticiz-
ing predecessors, but stating
a fact.” She argued that pres-
idents didn’t always call fam-
ilies of those killed in battle:
“Sometimes they call, some-
times they send a letter, other
times they have the opportu-
nity to meet family members
in person.”
She said anyone claiming
a former president had called
every family was “mistaken.”
Kellyanne Conway, a
senior White House adviser,
further suggested today that
there were many ways to con-
sole a grieving family and said
that Trump doesn’t always
make public when he is doing
that “because these are very
private, very solemn sacro-
sanct really moments.”
Bush’s commitment to
writing to all military families
of the dead and to reaching
out by phone or meeting with
many others came despite the
enormity of the task. In the
Iraq war alone, U.S. combat
deaths were highest during
his presidency, exceeding 800
each year from 2004 through
2007. The number fell to 313
in Bush’s last year in office as
the insurgency faded. Bush
once said he felt the appropri-
ate way to show his respect
was to meet family members
in private.
Obama declared an end
to combat operations in Iraq
in August 2010 and the last
U.S. troops were withdrawn
in December 2011. As Obama
wound down that war, he sent
tens of thousands more troops
into Afghanistan in 2009 and
2010, and the death count
mounted. From a total of 155
Americans killed in Afghan-
istan in 2008, which was
Bush’s last full year in office,
the number jumped to 311
in 2009 and peaked the next
year at 498. In all, more than
1,700 died in Afghanistan on
Obama’s watch.
Trump visited Dover early
in his presidency, going in
February with his daughter
Ivanka for the return of the
remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL
killed during a raid in Yemen,
William “Ryan” Owens. He
did not go for those killed in
Niger.
Bloomfield: ‘Emotional
generosity was renowned’
Continued from Page 1A
“I have to admit when I
first met this diminutive little
lady I was a bit taken aback
when she was appointed
chairman of the construc-
tion committee,” Folk said.
“It didn’t take long before
I quickly realized she was
multitalented and a force to
be reckoned with!”
Christine Lolich, pres-
ident of the Liberty’s
board, praised Bloomfield’s
legacy.
“Marge was instrumen-
tal in helping to achieve
what the Liberty Theatre has
become,” Lolich said. “With
her thoughtfulness, support
and vision, we are who we
are today.”
Bloomfield was also an
early benefactor of the Asto-
ria Music Festival.
Many of Bloomfield’s
friends describe a life of
humility and some adven-
ture. Mary Davies, a neigh-
bor and colleague on the Lib-
erty’s board, said, “Marge
was one of the most hum-
ble and intelligent women
that I’ve known. She never
ceased to amaze me when
talking about her life. One
could make a movie out of
it.”
Bloomfield’s emotional
generosity was renowned.
Carol Newman, host of
KMUN’s “Arts Live and
Local”
recollects
that,
“Whenever Marge and I met,
intentionally or in passing, I
felt a joy, a light, a warmth.
Marge graciously hosted
our Jewish community at
home in her natural and gen-
erous style. We even sang
some of the classics together.
Marge enjoyed life, if not the
limelight.”
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Last call: Last event will
be a pub crawl on Oct. 28 Column: Goal doubled because of early success
The Astoria Column is illuminated in pink light for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Continued from Page 1A
patrons. Sawyer hired a new
manager to clean up the bar’s
reputation.
Port of Call had been
administratively dissolved
as of late August, according
to the Oregon Secretary of
State’s Corporate Division.
A notice to staff was recently
posted by Sawyer and
Probst.
“It is with a heavy heart
that after (three) years and
a lot of fun and dedication
from an amazing staff, we
will be closing our doors,”
the notice said.
The last event at Port of
Call, according to the notice,
is an Oct. 28 zombie-themed
pub crawl. The Astoria Event
Center will host Pacific
Northwest
Professional
Wrestling Oct. 29.
Continued from Page 1A
visitors so far. The original
goal was $1,000 for the entire
month, but has now been dou-
bled due to early success, Vigil
said.
“It’s kind of a lofty goal to
get to, but there’s no reason we
shouldn’t be able to surpass it,”
Vigil said.
The donations will be com-
bined with those from the
CMH Auxiliary and recently
founded Arm in Arm Fund,
which have pitched in $65,000.
The money will help patients
pay for expenses beyond medi-
cal costs — including transpor-
tation to and from treatment,
cosmetic items, child care and
temporary lodging costs.
Mary Armington — along
with Dr. William Arming-
ton, her son — established the
Arm in Arm Fund last month
in conjunction with the CMH
Foundation.
“This fund is to be the
safety net underneath the
safety net,” Dr. Armington said
during a celebration last week
of the center’s opening.
The $16 million cancer
center officially opened ear-
lier this month after seven
years of preparation. It rep-
resents the region’s first source
of radiation therapy for can-
cer patients and expects to see
3,000 patients a year.
Those patients may find
relief from Column visitors on
an annual basis.
“I would love it if it could
be an annual thing,” Vigil said.
“Cancer doesn’t just stop after
the month of October.”