OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Restaurants:
Continued from Page A1
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Steven Kidwell performs during a concert to honor veterans on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, at the Heritage Station Museum, Pendleton.
Music:
Continued from Page A1
Cammann said when you have
the passion and love that Kidwell
has, “miraculous things can happen
in a short manner of time.”
Vendors including the Midway
Bar & Grill, Hermiston Chimu’s
Tacos, Pendleton, and the Pendle-
ton Eagles Lodge also attended and
donated portions of their proceeds
to the foundation. Others in the
business community were eager
to help, donating extra fencing
and custom banners and the huge
American fl ag and the lift holding
aloft.
The lineup for the event show-
cased regional talent, with Steve
Campbell, a solo Americana musi-
cian out of La Grande, Jagged
Edge, a rock band out of the Tri-Cit-
ies, and the Vaughn Jensen Expe-
rience out of Eastern Washington
performing blues out of Eastern
Washington. Kidwell himself was
the headliner.
Friends:
Continued from Page A1
“He felt that, when the
U.S. does leave, he and his
family would potentially be
in harm’s way,” said Paullus,
47, a parole and probation
offi cer for Umatilla County
Community Corrections.
“But as long as he was there,
he wanted to see that good
things were done, and he did
his part to do as much as he
could for his country. At the
end of the day, if he wasn’t
able to get his U.S. citizen-
ship, he would have dealt
with it as many of his friends
currently are.”
Running in circles
In recent weeks, Hussein
has been glued to his phone.
From nearly 7,800 miles
away, he has watched the
Taliban seize the city where
he grew up. He seldom goes
to work, despite his expen-
sive rent. He takes calls from
friends and family members,
most of whom worked for the
U.S. and fear the worst. Just
a few weeks ago, he received
images from his brother, who
he said was beaten by the
Taliban while on a grocery
run.
(Hussein provided the
East Oregonian with videos
and recordings as evidence
of his family’s account. He
asked the newspaper not to
publish those images out of
fear the Taliban would fi nd
his family.)
Meanwhile, Paullus talks
to Hussein every week as
he and his family attempt to
navigate the maze of U.S.
immigration and its mountain
of paperwork. Paullus said
he recently wrote a letter to
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon,
urging for his support in the
safe evacuation of Hussein’s
family. He said he feels a
responsibility to Hussein’s
family.
“I wish there was more
I could do for Hussein and
his family,” he said, adding.
Additionally, the event hosted
a silent auction with close to 80
donations from local businesses
and merchants. Some of the items
on auction included professional
mechanics tools, two round-trip
airplane tickets to Portland, over-
night stays, expensive meals
and wine. All proceeds from the
auction went to the foundation.
“There’s something for every-
body,” Rovier said.
“We’ve had a huge huge
outpouring of everything from
everybody,” Kidwell said, “and
they are just hugely appreciated.”
Originally, Kidwell and his wife
were going to host the event at their
six-acre property and have a few
people over, but then it grew and
continued to grow. Eventually, their
property wasn’t going to be feasi-
ble and they found the Heritage
Station Museum, which agreed to
play host.
“It’s amazing. It’s absolutely
amazing,” Rovier said. “We’ve not
done anything like this on this large
a scale. And it’s just taken off and
grown and it’s been a real pleasure.”
Many of the veterans who
attended felt that special connec-
tion and were appreciative that
Kidwell had gone through the eff ort
to do so much for them.
Paul Rabitaille, a Vietnam
veteran who joined the Army in
1970 and spent exactly seven years,
11 months, 28 days and 16 hours
in the military, loved his time
serving. He loved meeting diff er-
ent people, learning about other
cultures and especially eating all
sorts of food.
From the dried cuttlefi sh that
he’d snack on throughout the day
or the spiraled pineapples, Rabi-
taille spoke highly of his time in
the service. “It was defi nitely a time
in my life I didn’t regret,” he said.
But, “When we came home we
did not come home to accolades,”
Rabitaille said. Instead, they were
faced with derision and disdain.
“This, in a lot of ways, makes up
for the disrespect,” he said.
And, with recent news roll-
ing out of Afghanistan, veterans
need more support than ever now,
Kidwell said.
“The Gary Sinise Foundation,
the Wounded Warrior program,
the veteran suicide awareness
program, all of those things are
essential,” Kidwell said. “And it’s
going to become more and more
important as the days go on here.”
Clifford Smith, a Vietnam
veteran who served as a medic in
1971 until 1972 with the 67th Evac
Hospital, said it was really good
what Kidwell was doing to honor
veterans — especially as compar-
isons between Afghanistan and
Vietnam make headlines across
the country.
“It’s really upsetting the way
things have happened,” Smith
said. “Basically it’s just about like
Vietnam, when we pulled out of
there.”
Smith, who spent his service
working in the intensive care
unit taking care of amputees and
wounded soldiers, felt Kidwell’s
event was even more powerful with
proceeds going to the Gary Sinise
Foundation.
“It’s great what he’s doing for
us,” Smith said, “for all veterans.”
As a bowling alley and family
entertainment venue, the opera-
tors weren’t sure they would even
qualify for the grant. However, a
large part of the businesses’ reve-
nue came from food and beverage
sales, according to Ray Fields, the
center’s manager, and this made
Desert Lanes eligible.
Desert Lanes, which has gone
from about 23 employees in March
2020 to just nine, has faced a tough
road with restrictions stamped
down on the bowling alley, Fields
said, but the funds helped take a
weight off their shoulders.
“We weren’t overly concerned
about closing the doors,” Fields said.
“But it took a burden off of us if
things kept continuing to prolong.”
He said the business commu-
nity in Hermiston has been helpful
in reminding and helping each other
with grants and loans that have been
opened up since COVID-19 struck,
and Fields said they had been fortu-
nate to have received help from
Business Oregon, Umatilla County
and the city of Hermiston.
“What money we’ve gotten,
we’ve basically been putting right
back into making sure that our
payrolls, our staff is taken care of.
our daily operational cost of the
business.”
He mentioned the Revitaliza-
tion Fund money came in a lump
sum and it was left up to the busi-
ness owners to stretch that out over
a long period to ensure their busi-
nesses stayed afl oat. And, when the
time comes, business owners will
have to show how they used their
money.
“You’re going to be held account-
able,” Fields said.
Beyond the large grants, plenty
of small restaurants in Umatilla
County received more modest
four and fi ve-fi gure grants. Many
received grants as sole proprietors
or limited liability companies,
meaning the grant wasn’t always
made out to the restaurant’s name.
Pendleton’s Great Pacifi c Wine
& Coffee Co. got $96,840 from
the fund, money co-owner Carol
Hanks said went to cover staffi ng
costs. Hanks said the various grants
off ered to Great Pacifi c have helped
the restaurant survived, but its
struggling to retain customers who
refuse to comply with the state’s
mask mandate.
She said Great Pacifi c has hired
a great crop of new employees, but
mask compliance during Round-Up
remains a concern.
“During COVID, the major-
ity of the (immigration)
offi ces are closed. Everything
has to be done through email.
Very few offi ces have anyone
that answers the phones. It
goes to a voice message. I can
feel his frustration with the
process and the circles he’s
running in.”
A waiting game
Their story is not unique.
Servicemen nationwide have
been calling on dignitaries
to support the safe and quick
withdrawal of Afghan allies
at risk of the Taliban’s retri-
bution amid the U.S. evacu-
ation.
The U.S. has called
Afghan military interpret-
ers and other close U.S.
allies a priority group in the
withdrawal. Yet American
offi cials are rejecting some
Afghan allies to give prior-
ity to U.S. citizens and green
card holders, The New York
Times has reported.
Many of those allies,
including Hussein’s family,
are waiting for Special Immi-
grant Visas. But only a frac-
tion of the tens of thousands
of Afghans who worked for
the U.S. government or U.S.
organizations and applied for
those visas have been evacu-
ated as the Taliban has rolled
into Kabul.
The Times estimates that
at least 250,000 Afghans
eligible for expedited Amer-
ican visas remain in Afghan-
istan.
‘They treated me
like family’
In 2014, Paullus deployed
with 2nd Battalion, 162nd
Infantry, out of Springfi eld
to Kabul, where he would
serve for eight months. Upon
arrival, he remarked on the
city’s congested traffic, its
Soviet-era structures, its
nightlife and its air, polluted
with arsenic and lead.
As Joint Operations
Sergeant Major at the New
Kabul Compound, his team’s
mission was the security of
Kabul. They secured the
National Guard Capt. Leslie Reed/Contributed Photo
U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Joshua Paullus of Pendleton on Oct. 2, 2014, shields his eyes to evaluate the
work on a project in Kabul, Afghanistan. Paullus helped his friend, Hussein, relocate from the
county to the U.S. with his wife and three daughters.
city’s entry points, escorted
dignitaries and contractors
and provided base security
for the compound. Among
their many projects, they
helped reconstruct a park that
had been damaged by artil-
lery fi re and set up barriers to
protect polling sites during
elections.
Paullus met Hussein in
2014. As a projects manager,
he worked with Hussein, a
contractor, at the New Kabul
Compound. Hussein cooked
meals and helped improve the
base’s infrastructure, build-
ing walls, gates and connect-
ing wires and cable. He also
had a small gift shop on the
base, where Paullus would
often stop by to chat.
Most of Hussein’s family
worked for the U.S. Armed
Forces. It was how they made
a living in a city where fi nd-
ing good paying work is diffi -
cult.
Prior to working for the
government, Hussein worked
eight hours a day for $5 an
hour cleaning his neighbor’s
home and taking care of their
chickens. He said it was just
enough to pay for bread,
electricity and rent. When he
went to work for the armed
forces, he made as much as
$500 a month.
“At least I could feed my
family,” he said, adding that
servicemen such as Paullus
“treated me like family.”
To Paullus, Hussein was
a clear professional who
believed in the U.S.’s mission
in Afghanistan. They shared
values; Hussein as a muslim
and Paullus with a faith in a
higher power. He appreci-
ated Hussein’s straight-for-
ward demeanor and how
he helped his community,
traits he likened to his own.
Over meals and tea, the two
became friends, speaking
often of their families and
children.
“His religion and him
being in Afghanistan had
nothing to do with me liking
him or not,” Paullus said. “It
was about the person and the
quality they show.”
Yearning to do more
The war in Afghanistan
ended Aug. 30 with the fi nal
evacuation fl ights out of the
Hamid Karzai International
Airport, Kabul. Nearly
130,000 people were airlifted
from the country, according
to the Associated Press.
Most of Hussein’s family,
including his mother and
father, remain stuck. But a
lucky few, like his brother
and other extended family
members, escaped with
the military to neighboring
countries and America. He
said he feels some semblance
of relief, but his wife, whose
family remains in the coun-
try, cries through the night.
Watching the news unfold,
Paullus recognizes that leav-
ing Afghanistan had been
the plan from the beginning.
Three consecutive U.S. pres-
idents had said it was. He
said he believes the evacua-
tion should have been done
sooner, but it’s not his place
to question the manner of the
pullout.
“This was what the plan
was,” Paullus said. “We knew
there were going to be reper-
cussions to that plan one way
or another as a country.”
Now that the U.S. has
departed, Paullus said he
hopes the U.S. intensifies
its eff orts to bring to safety
those who were integral to its
mission.
“With anyone in his situa-
tion, you wish that you could
do more to help them,” Paul-
lus said. “It’d be interesting to
meet a person that wouldn’t.
Because you know that the
potential for end of life is a
reality for them, because of
their close support of U.S.
forces.”
W hen Paullus told
Hussein he was preparing
to head back home to East-
ern Oregon at the end of his
eight-month deployment in
2015, the Afghan brought him
a gift: a kirkuk knife with a
handle made of rock coral,
obsidian and jade. Paullus
keeps the blade in a safe at
his home in Pendleton.
Inscribed along the side
in Dari, Afghanistan’s most
common language, it says:
“As friends we part.”
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