CURT & CAROL NEWBY
OF HERMISTON
WORLD/8A
Visit Antiques and Art on Main
in Pendleton for a vintage
cookie cutter and $10 coupon
ACTIVIST
DISCOVERS
iPHONE
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FOOTBALL/1B
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
140th Year, No. 225
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
Avoid, deny, defend
CRASE trains civilians to respond to active shooters
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
•
•
Molly’s Revenge live at
the Pendleton arts center
Wheatstock at
Quantum 9 Arena, Helix
For times and places
see Coming Events, 5A
Catch a movie
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston Police Sgt. Bill Osborne talks about mass
shooters during a CRASE training Thursday in Hermiston.
It’s one of the most high-stress situations
a person can be in: A gunman enters a
building, opening fi re on everyone in sight
as crowds attempt to fl ee or hide.
In the panic, it’s easy for people to freeze,
or do other things that increase their chance
of being harmed. The Civilian Response to
Active Shooter Events course offered for
free by the Hermiston Police Department
gives people tools to reduce their chances
of being harmed.
“Nobody in here is helpless,” Sgt. Bill
Osborne told Umatilla-Morrow Head
Start staff members during a training on
Thursday.
The message shared over and over
again during the three-hour course: In an
See CRASE/10A
51 years later, Veteran receives Purple Heart
Gordon Timpen/Sony/Screen Gems via AP
“Don’t Breathe”
The perfect heist goes
awry when a trio of thieves
break into the house of a
wealthy blind man.
For showtime, Page 5A
Helicopter
blade slammed
into soldier’s
head in Vietnam
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
89/63
92/61
87/57
ODOT’s
lax quality
control
raises
questions
of fraud
By NICK BUDNICK
Capital Bureau
Potholes and ruts cost the
average Oregonian driver
hundreds of dollars in vehicle
repairs every year.
But as Oregon Department
of Transportation Director
Matt Garrett prepares to ask
lawmakers for hundreds of
millions of dollars in increased
taxes and fees on Oregonians
to fund new roads and bridge
upgrades, documents show
that his department has for
more than a decade resisted
basic quality improvements
intended to stop construction
fraud, combat premature
potholes and make roads last
longer.
Federal highway offi cials
have warned ODOT repeat-
See ODOT/10A
Decades after a helicopter
blade struck Ron Esselstyn’s
head, he fi nally received his
Purple Heart.
The Pendleton soldier
almost died 51 years ago in
Vietnam at age 22 after an
Army helicopter carrying
him and other soldiers
landed in a rice paddy and
Esselstyn hopped out. When
a Viet Cong sniper popped
up from the weeds, the
soldier jumped off balance
into the chopper’s moving
tail rotor. The blade hit with
such force that it mashed
part of Esselstyn’s fi berglass
helmet into his brain.
His parents got a telegram
calling their son’s prognosis
“guarded.” When he awoke,
speech eluded him. His
doctors suspected he would
never walk again.
The Pendleton man,
once called “The Cat”
by basketball teammates,
surprised everyone by not
only walking, but eventually
running more than 100
marathons. He fi nished
college and started a career
as a tax appraiser at the
Umatilla County Assessor’s
Offi ce.
Esselstyn didn’t receive
his Purple Heart. The
veteran believed he wasn’t
eligible because he was
technically an “advisor,”
not a combat troop. Possibly
he was passed over because
of a misunderstanding of
Army regulation, which
bars soldiers from receiving
Purple Hearts for vehicular
accidents that weren’t
Staff photos by Kathy Aney
TOP: Ron Esselstyn has
tears come to his eyes
as Oregon Department
of Veterans Affairs Op-
erations Director Ed Van
Dyke pins a Purple Heart
on his chest Thursday
afternoon at the Jon-
athan M. Wainwright
Memorial VA Medical
Center. The awards cer-
emony comes 51 years
after a helicopter blade
hit him in the head during
confl ict in Vietnam.
LEFT: A Purple Heart was
one of eight medals,
badges and ribbons re-
ceived by Ron Esselstyn
51 years after a helicop-
ter rotor hit him in the
head during confl ict in
Vietnam.
caused by enemy action.
Last year, Oregon Depart-
ment of Veteran’s Affairs
Operations Director Ed Van
Dyke began researching
Esselstyn’s service record
and found that he was
eligible for the Purple Heart
and seven other medals,
ribbons and badges.
On Thursday afternoon at
the Jonathan M. Wainwright
Memorial VA Medical
Center in Walla Walla, the
73-year-old veteran fi nally
got his medals in front of a
crowd of about 75 gathered
in the Outpatient Center
Atrium.
Esselstyn sat in his
See VETERAN/10A
PENDLETON
Boy recovers from brain surgery with help from community
Tumor removed from 3-year-old’s brain
By WILL DENNER
East Oregonian
Life is returning to normal
for Drew Gunnels and her
family a month after doctors
removed a tumor from her
three-year-old son’s brain.
Seamus, an outgoing boy,
started showing symptoms in
July when he would suddenly
stop moving. The family fi rst
thought he was acting, but
soon found out that he was
having seizures.
An MRI revealed Seamus
had a ganglioglioma tumor
— usually benign — on his
frontal lobe. Seamus under-
went a six-hour operation
at Portland’s Doernbecher
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Children’s
Hospital
in
Seamus Gunnels, 3, shows his mother, Drew Gunnels, a Lego action fi gure at which the whole tumor was
their home Wednesday in Pendleton.
successfully removed.
A few weeks of recovery
later, Seamus has rejoined his
six-year-old brother, Atticus,
at Lil Angels day care. Drew
is back at her Columbia Care
Services job, and the Pend-
leton community continues
to support the family. A scar
on his scalp reminds the
family of a whirlwind month,
but also a lesson not to take
life for granted.
“We were very lucky in the
sense that it wasn’t anything
worse, but it could’ve been,”
Gunnels said. “That’s a big
eye opener.”
Doctors told Gunnels
there is a chance the tumor
could return cancerous.
Atticus was the fi rst
person to tell Gunnels of
See SEAMUS/10A