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East Oregonian
Thursday, June 6, 2019
D-Day: Soldiers with ties to Northeast Oregon participated in assault
Continued from Page A1
U.K.
D-Day remembered
GERMANY
Area in detail
June 6, 1944 — 75 years ago. More than 160,000 Allied troops
stormed the heavily-fortified beaches of Normandy, France, to gain
a toehold in Continental Europe and drive Nazi Germany back to the
Rhine River. This was the greatest seaborne invasion in history with
more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supporting the effort.
More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded.
Engli
101st
Airborne
Division
N13
sh
Channe
4th Division
H
UTA
Airborne in Sicily and Salerno, Italy.
The 82nd and 101st Airborne served
as the advance party for Overlord, drop-
ping behind enemy lines to clear the
roads leading to the beaches and blunt
the counterattack that would swiftly fol-
low the landings. As the June 6 skies
over Normandy fi lled with C-47 “sky-
train” planes, Nazi forces answered with
anti-aircraft fi re, downing the trans-
ports, killing some exiting troopers and
causing misdrops up to 20 miles.
Franco was lucky to complete his
“quietest and smoothest” jump to date,
landing just outside the objective, the
crossroads town of Sainte-Mère-Église.
He quickly found several 505th com-
rades, including the chaplain, who was
so delighted to have survived the jump
that he spontaneously clicked his identi-
fying clicker toy a dozen times.
“Stop making all that goddamn noise,
padre, you’ll alert the whole German
army,” came a harsh whisper.
Franco moved carefully into town, set
up his aid station in the schoolhouse, and
readied himself for the coming onslaught
of wounded. A timely administration of
plasma, he remembered, could stabilize
the critically injured.
At midday, he was summoned to the
scene of a horrifi c glider crash, where
he found the pilot and crew beyond
help. Fortunately, Whipple had already
landed his craft safely.
A Salt Lake City college student
before Pearl Harbor, the 20-year-old
Whipple knew he wanted to be a pilot
and eventually received orders for glider
school. Glider pilots became the unsung
heroes of the D-Day operation, eclipsed
in public memory by the airborne,
who starred in the TV series “Band of
Brothers.” They fl ew “fl ying coffi ns,”
non-mechanized aircraft loaded down
with supplies, towed by C-47 planes and
released to glide stealthily toward a suit-
able landing zone, after dark with enemy
all around.
Lt. Whipple recalled watching his
light Horsa glider being loaded for Nor-
mandy, crammed with a jeep (2,300
pounds), 57mm anti-tank gun (2,300
Ste. Mère-Église
1st & 29th
divisions
POINTE
DU HOC
NETH.
BEL.
SWITZ.
Bay of
Biscay
FRANCE
ITALY
Allied beachhead, June 6
Allied advance, June 12
Allied airdrop
German force
Roadway
l
50th Division
3rd Division
3rd Division
(2nd Ranger Battalion)
OMAH
A
GOLD
N13
JUNO
SWO
RD
Carentan
NORMANDY,
FR ANCE
82nd & 101st
airborne
divisions
Bayeux
N13
Pegasus Bridge
Caen
St. Lô
5 miles
Sources: Stars and Stripes; www.army.mil
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well
trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fi ght
savagely. But this is the year 1944! The tide has turned!
The free men of the world are marching together to
victory! I have full confi dence in your courage, devotion
to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than
full victory! Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing
of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
— Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Supreme Allied Commander, 6 June 1944.
pounds), sundry supplies, a co-pilot and
gun crew and himself. After the C-47
tow, Whipple and comrades took small-
arms fi re on the descent and struggled to
land, due to the overloading of the craft
and the diffi culty of recognizing the
landing zone. Aerial photographs had
depicted trees without June leaves.
They beat steep odds in coming down
safely, just one of three in a grouping of
18 without serious damage or casualties.
Whipple coolly helped unload his air-
craft, enemy fi re echoing all around, and
made his way to Sainte-Mère-Église,
where he informed 82nd Airborne offi -
cers about the location of the jeep and
antitank gun and helped salvage supplies
from wrecked planes and gliders.
The next day brought the march
to Utah Beach for transport back to
England, where Whipple would man
resupply fl ights. En route, his luck nearly
ran out. Nearby American anti-aircraft
guns opened up on a swooping German
bomber, sending him diving for cover.
Once on board the landing craft tank
that would take him to the waiting ship,
he hit the deck as a sea mine destroyed
the neighboring craft.
He returned safely, but no wonder he
felt, as he later wrote, that “someone was
watching over me.”
After the war, Whipple married
Audrey Wallace in 1950 and had two
children, John R., Jr., and Elizabeth. He
managed department stores for Allied
Federated Stores (now Macy’s) around
the Pacifi c Northwest, including in
Pendleton, later owning and operating
his own JR’s Department Store in Cedar
City, Utah. He and his wife eventually
opened a bed and breakfast in Cedar
City, Utah, before retiring to the Mill-
creek area of Salt Lake City. Whipple
passed away in October 2018 at the age
of 97.
Franco returned to the U.S. in 1946
and married Ilene Andler, a surgical
nurse from Boston, proposing to her at
Fenway Park. The couple had six chil-
dren and eventually settled in Rich-
land, Washington, where Franco was a
surgeon for 41 years. He also became a
student at Washington State University,
Tri-Cities, taking courses and interact-
ing with young students. Franco passed
away in August 2013 in Seattle.
Franco and Whipple typically
declined to discuss the war through the
years following the war, but it is not hard
to imagine their quiet pride in the roles
they played in the “Great Crusade.”
They truly did help save the world.
Foster: State still risking safety of children
Continued from Page A1
EO File Photo
Progress across the Interstate 82 bridge was slow going in
June 2018 for motorists on the way to the Hermiston High
School graduation at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
I-82: Bridge to reopen
by end of the month
Continued from Page A1
one-lane closures on the
Washington-bound bridge
as the medians that directed
the two-way traffi c are
removed.
All closures are expected
to be fi nished before July 4,
in time for holiday travelers.
The two-year bridge clo-
sure has at times created
long delays for commuters,
particularly during a crash
or large event like the solar
eclipse of August 2017. Last
year’s Hermiston graduation
ceremony in Kennewick
started late because so many
parents, students and staff
were stuck in a bottleneck of
traffi c on the bridge.
Hermiston High School’s
graduation will take place
Thursday at 7 p.m. at the
Toyota Center in Kennewick.
Signs: New signs, rules
pop up at Wallowa Lake
Continued from Page A1
“Our job is to provide irri-
gation and we want our dam
manager to be safe.”
Dawson said a few years
ago he rented a house across
from the park and tourists
would ask to fi ll up water
containers and use his
bathroom.
“When we were kids,
everyone used to go to the
state park at the south end of
the lake,” Dawson said.
The increased use led to
an agreement that the Enter-
prise District Offi ce would
provide signs that com-
plied with management of
all of ODFW-controlled
properties.
“The Oregon Admin-
istrative Rule gives cops
the right to do preemptive
enforcement on the ease-
ment,” Kyle Bratcher, acting
Enterprise district fi sh biol-
ogist said.
The rules cite dogs must
be on leash, no littering
allowed, and that the park is
closed between 10 p.m. and
4 a.m.
Sheriff Steve Rogers told
Irrigation District board
members he would ask his
deputies to include a cruise
through the boat launch
parking area during their
nightly patrols of Joseph.
“The OAR gives state and
county authority to come
into the park,” Rogers said.
Progress will take time
because of the “extensive”
work needed to improve
the system.
“In our view, it will
take several years of con-
sistent focus by DHS lead-
ership, likely combined
with increased staffi ng
and legislative and com-
munity support, to lock in
improvements,” auditors
wrote.
Less than a month
before state lawmakers
must pass a budget, man-
agement at the state’s
Department of Human
Services haven’t even
clearly told the legisla-
tors how many workers it
needs to make things bet-
ter for the thousands of
kids in its care, auditors
said.
And it’s far from clear
at this point that legisla-
tors will set aside money
for more workers.
Meanwhile,
there
still aren’t enough fos-
ter homes or other safe
places for high-needs kids
and youth. The total num-
ber of foster homes hasn’t
changed since auditors
released their report last
year.
The agency isn’t col-
lecting what auditors say
is “critical” information
on staffi ng and place-
ments. And a new state-
wide hotline for reporting
child abuse — which was
supposed to centralize the
process — has had sig-
nifi cant problems getting
started.
In their earlier report
in January 2018, auditors
said that shortages of fos-
ter parents, caseworkers
and safe placements posed
a threat to kids’ well-be-
ing and that the way the
agency had been managed
was deeply problematic.
Managers allowed a
“work culture of blame
and distrust” to foment.
The agency’s leaders
didn’t plan enough for
expensive initiatives, tar-
get the cause of prob-
lems, or push long-term
changes.
Over the past year and
a half, the child welfare
program’s management
has seen signifi cant turn-
over. New managers have
boosted training and help
for workers, and “is mak-
ing stronger efforts to
identify and address the
concerns” of workers in
the fi eld, the new audit
said.
The 2018 audit, sought
by the late Secretary of
State Dennis Richardson
— himself a foster par-
ent — was hardly the fi rst
report on conditions in the
long-troubled foster care
system.
Auditors have looked
at overarching bureau-
cratic problems, such
as fl agging morale over
resources and compensa-
tion at the Department of
Human Services, which
is also home to state ser-
vices for elderly people,
people with disabilities
and the poor, in 2016, and
two years before that, at a
technical system for pro-
cessing payments.
In 2012, in a report on
barriers to reunifying fos-
ter kids with their biologi-
cal parents, auditors raised
red fl ags about casework-
ers’ high workloads.
In turn, they pointed to
issues that already been
brought up four years
before that, in a study of
caseworkers’ loads.
That workload report
found that the state had
about 24 to 37 percent
fewer caseworkers than
it needed for high-quality
work.
And more than a decade
later, it appears that the
agency still doesn’t have
enough workers to care
for children in its custody.
Citing
state
bud-
get offi cials, auditors
said Wednesday that the
agency still has “sig-
nifi cant vacancies and
high turnover” so even if
the legislature provided
money to add workers,
there’s a signifi cant risk
they could remain empty.
The agency has cut
down on overtime by
lowering the amount
of time that foster kids
spend in hotels — which
prompted a public outcry
several years ago — but
the agency hasn’t clearly
told the legislature what it
lacks, isn’t keeping track
of turnover or worker
use of family leave, and
doesn’t have staff to send
multiple people out to
calls that could be danger-
ous, the audit said.
Previous efforts to
implement changes to the
system have fallen short.
Three years ago, in
the wake of a scandal at a
Portland foster care pro-
vider, lawmakers cre-
ated a special child foster
care advisory commission
designed to turn the many
reports on how to improve
the system into policies.
But as previous report-
ing by the Oregon Capi-
tal Bureau has shown, the
commission struggled to
get off the ground and has
not had any discernible
effect on the state’s foster
kids.
Gov. Kate Brown is
under pressure to make
changes.
She took offi ce in Feb-
ruary 2015, and her tenure
has been punctuated by
problems in the child wel-
fare system. They seem to
come to a head every few
months — whether it has
been the state’s practice
of shipping kids to out-of-
state facilities, the state’s
handling of problematic
providers, or housing fos-
ter children in hotels and
DHS offi ces because there
are so few foster homes
available.
In mid-April, Brown
established her own over-
sight board for child wel-
fare, including high-pro-
fi le state executives and
experts in various fi elds,
to try to turn the system
around. Since then, the
board has met three times.
In an effort to address
public concerns about
access to its information,
the board approved a new
public records process
and has been directing a
crisis management team
brought on to spearhead
changes at the agency,
according to the gover-
nor’s offi ce.
“The
governor
is
pleased with progress
of the board and the cri-
sis management team,”
spokeswoman
Lisa
Morawski said in an email
to the Oregon Capital
Bureau Tuesday.
The budget for the
state’s Department of
Human Services has not
been fi nalized, so it’s not
clear how much money
legislators will approve
for the state’s largest
agency.
Last year, Brown pro-
posed a $56 million
increase in funding for the
child welfare program for
the next two years, audi-
tors said in their Wednes-
day report.
Auditors said Wednes-
day that to serve kids bet-
ter, the agency should get
more workers and support.
“Additional staff and
program support, while
costly,
would
likely
reduce staff workloads
and improve child safety
and family stability,”
auditors wrote.
The governor’s offi ce
is urging lawmakers to
boost funding for the child
welfare system through
two bills: Senate Bill 1
and Senate Bill 221.
The governor’s offi ce
said in an email that those
proposals would “improve
services” for kids with
special needs and provide
the agency more money
for staff “to help lower
caseloads and improve
staff culture and child
safety.”
Other factors have
complicated reforms over
the years. While agency
leaders have struggled
to implement policies,
the legislature and fed-
eral government passed
new laws and regulations
in a seeming constant
stream.
Some advocates, mean-
while, stress the state
should be looking at the
underlying causes that
lead children to enter fos-
ter care in the fi rst place,
such as addiction, poverty
and lack of access to men-
tal and behavioral health
services.