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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017 Two 911 dispatchers get awards for outstanding performance The Daily Astorian An Astoria 911 dispatcher has been recognized as the top telecommunicator in the state. Early this month, Candace Pozdolski, a lead dispatcher with 11 years of experience, earned the state chapter of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials’ Telecommunicator of the Year Award. She also received an Impact award for her part in implementing a text to 911 system. After three years working in Astoria, Pozdolski was pro- moted to the newly formed operations supervisor position earlier this month. The posi- tion, created to improve com- munication and management at the dispatch center, will allow Pozdolski to oversee the plan- ning, training and supervision of the daily operations of the center. Critical Incident Jennifer Peden, another lead dispatcher, received two Critical Incident awards. Earlier this year, Peden han- dled a welfare check call for a war veteran who was making Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Candace Pozdolski, left, and Jennifer Peden, right, are both lead dispatchers at the Asto- ria 911 Dispatch, and both received awards earlier this month. suicidal statements as he was leaving work in Warrenton. Officers responded to his home but were unable to locate him. After Peden’s call to the man’s cell phone went unanswered, he soon called back. Peden ensured that he was not going to harm himself as police responded to the scene. She also put him in touch with her brother, a combat veteran who suffers from post-trau- matic stress disorder. In March of 2016, Peden helped a tow-truck driver as he attempted to locate a four- axle, 50-ton Sysco Food semi- truck that was stalled on U.S. Highway 101 Business near Production Lane. The driver, given poor directions, was near the Astoria Regional Air- port at the time. Peden took about five min- utes to help him find the truck. Soon after, the tow-truck driver called Emergency Communi- cations Manager Jeff Rusiecki to compliment Peden. New management at Red Building Loft The Daily Astorian Briana Smith has taken over management of events center The Loft at the Red Building. Smith, from Boring, first became interested in event management after coordinat- ing a fashion show fundraiser in high school for Doernbe- cher Children’s Hospital. Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian “I have been doing event Briana Smith recently took management for quite a long over management of the time,” she said. “The last Loft at the Red Building. four years, I was doing con- ference management all over the original developer behind the U.S. and Canada, so I’d the Red Building, decided plan events for IT leaders and to convert the loft into office oil and gas leaders.” space, citing the difficulty of Smith moved to Asto- finding uses for the space in ria several years ago with the winter months. Below the her husband. She volunteered loft is the popular, upscale her skills locally with events restaurant Bridgewater Bistro. in Cannon Beach and with The Loft is mostly known the Astoria-Warrenton Area for weddings, banquets and Chamber of Commerce. She other formal occasions. But connected with the previous Smith said she hopes to Loft operators Evie Larson expand the community offer- and Jessica Newhall through ings in the space, catering to her involvement with the anything from a pop-up yoga Astoria Downtown Historic studio to a temporary gath- District Association’s Shore- ering place for a church. She Style Wedding Faire held in is also contemplating a New the space. Year’s Eve gala. The space formerly had For more information, call been closed until March 2013, 971-409-6246 or email bri- when Unionfish Properties, ana@theredbuildingloft.com Vietnam War: ‘We feel that all wars are fought twice’ Continued from Page 1A Roughly 13 million people viewed the first episode of the 18-hour Burns documentary. A decade of research and inter- views went into the project, which covers the most import- ant event since World War II, Burns said in a USA Today interview. “This war didn’t turn out well for Americans and we did ignore it and then, sort of, clung desperately to some fairly superficial facts,” Burns said. ‘I would’ve moved to Canada’ Hertel worked at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1960s. Weary of dodging the draft by attend- ing college classes and work- ing, he decided to sign up for a two-year enlistment. At 20 years old, he thought he might have been blackballed economically had he decided to move to another country. Rather, after serving just two years, he figured he could reap some of the benefits afforded to veterans through the GI Bill. “I knew we had no business being in Vietnam,” he said. “If I had done what I thought was the right thing to do, I would’ve moved to Canada.” In his year overseas from 1968 to 1969, Hertel served as an enlisted soldier, conduct- ing meteorological surveys in a camp that also housed much of the army’s leadership. Because commanding officers were present, the camp was often shelled. But Hertel remembers his time in the camp fondly. Fol- lowing relatively short work OREGON CAPITAL INSIDER Get the inside scoop on state government and politics! We’re investing in Salem coverage when other news organizations are cutting back. OregonCapitalInsider.com days, he spent much of his time reading, writing, listening to music and exchanging letters with his new wife. “Overall, I felt like it was a pretty good year,” he said. “It was just, like, very relaxing.” When his tour ended, so too did his mental involvement in the conflict — at least for the next four decades. Greeted by gunfire Another local veteran, on the other hand, participated in anti-war activism as soon as he returned home. Ben Hunt ran into legal trouble in the 1960s, and a judge presented two options: jail or the military. Opting for the latter, Hunt joined the army in 1966. He had what he described as a “cushy job” at a base in Loui- siana and could have remained there for his three-year enlist- ment. Instead, he decided that he wanted to experience the war for himself. He deployed in 1968 as a mechanic, heli- copter door gunner and supply sergeant. Hunt spent his first night in Vietnam — Jan. 31, 1968 — in Bien Hoa. He was greeted within hours of his arrival by gunfire — the Tet Offensive had just launched. “Arriving there was a total shock,” he said. Following three sleep-de- prived nights, the attack tem- porarily stopped. Hunt soon transferred to a camp north of Bien Hoa. For the rest of the Clatsop Post 12 Taco Salads with year, he tried to avoid becom- ing what both he and Hertel called a “grunt” — a soldier who spent days in the jungle fighting along the front lines. “If you kept moving, you didn’t get much trouble,” Hunt said. Hunt, now the proprietor of Sunset Lake Farm, returned to Oregon after the war to attend classes at Portland State Uni- versity. He participated in a nationwide student strike in May of 1970 in response to President Richard Nixon’s decision to expand the war into Cambodia. The strike included the Kent State University demon- stration, in which four stu- dents were shot by National Guardsmen. “It was pretty exciting,” Hunt said. “It was a pretty wild period.” ‘All wars are fought twice’ Both Hertel and Hunt largely agree with Burns’ por- trayal of the war, minus some details. Hunt questioned some of the documentary’s versions of why the U.S. became involved, as well as its portrayal of sol- diers’ daily life. Hertel, mean- while, viewed some of the film’s focus on emotional sto- ries of soldiers who were killed — as opposed to a more thor- ough chronicling of facts — as propagandistic. “There is gallantry and her- oism in a war, but in the midst of all of this, the fact that we’re supporting a colonial power against our basic beliefs of democracy, it’s just totally lost,” Hertel said. In the USA Today inter- view, Burns said he hoped the film would allow viewers to parse through solid facts about the war. It could be another step for veterans like Hertel and Hunt, who — in different ways — have devoted much of their lives trying to compre- hend one of the pivotal events of their lives. “We feel that all wars are fought twice,” Burns said, “once on the battlefield and then in memory.” W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 WE START BY LENDING AN EAR. All the Trimmings Friday Oct. 27 th 4 pm until gone 6. 00 $ 6PM “Karaoke Dave” ASTORIA AMERICAN LEGION Clatsop Post 12 1132 Exchange Street 325-5771 SEASIDE AMERICAN LEGION Saturday, October 28 th , 2017 Halloween Dance Costume Party & We take time to understand your business needs, so we can help solve them. Nt twt businesses are alike. St cttkie cutter ltans wtn’t cut it. At Ctlumbia Bank, we wtrk cltsely with ytu frtm the beginning tf the ltan prtcess tt make sure we’re setting ytu up with the right ltan tt reach ytur unique business gtals. 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