FROM PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Attacks:
Continued from Page A1
In looking at how the U.S. eff ort
in Afghanistan turned out, Marcum
was a bit disappointed.
“It’s unexplainable, seeing the
decades of work and progress made
ruined,” he said of the Taliban take-
over. “All because of some bad
political decisions. A good eff ort
was defi nitely thrown away.”
He said there were 25 Marines
killed and more than 180 wounded
in his unit when he was attached to
Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion of the
5th Marine Division. He fears that
while the U.S. had to take action
in the wake of 9/11, attempting to
build democracy in a culture that
really didn’t understand it or accept
it was a futile eff ort.
“It was hard being there and
not being discouraged. Seeing the
devastation of a war for both the
Afghan’s and military members
across the world, and for what?” he
said.
Marcum, who now is the lead
hunting guide for Divide Camp,
which works to heal veterans
through God and nature, is con-
cerned that although it’s been 20
years since 9/11, many veterans
have had trouble moving on.
“There are thousands of veter-
ans who did things they can’t for-
get, and who lost a lot of friends,”
he said. “The military’s suicide rate
is already too high, events like this
can often times be the last thing
for someone before they break. If
you’re struggling, reach out. It’s not
worth the loss of anymore lives.”
He urged any veterans who
are struggling to reach out to a
friend, family member, anyone.
Or call the Veterans Crisis Line at
800-273-8255.
Jack James of Enterprise was in
Afghanistan for about six months
in 2002 as an individual augmen-
Workers:
Continued from Page A1
No chance for profi t
Millar is not alone. Sev-
eral restaurants across the
region have reported chal-
lenges with hiring work-
ers over the summer. Some
blamed expanded federal
unemployment benefi ts as
the culprit for lower work-
force participation, even
though the region has seen
lower unemployment bene-
fi ts claims now than it had
before the pandemic started.
Others recognized the high
cost of living, taxes and low
supply of housing that has
made rents and home prices
balloon.
Millar explained that
while business picked up
considerably over the sum-
mer, the lack of staffi ng and
overburdened industry has a
cascading eff ect with other
restaurants, causing a feed-
back loop of demand and
short supply. As one busi-
ness cuts its hours, patrons
look elsewhere for a meal.
“It’s a funny, weird thing
where I think we would all
be excited if there were three
more restaurants because
we just need more places to
send people to eat, so it’s a
unique situation over here,”
Millar said.
Earlier this summer,
Baker City’s Main Event
Sports Bar and Eatery was
experiencing severe worker
burnout in June due to staff -
ing shortages, which led to
closing the restaurant on
Tuesdays.
The situation there has
changed little. While the
sports bar is open seven
days a week, it’s had to cut
tee to Joint Special Operations Task
Force as a Navy Seal in Combined
Joint Task Force 180. He served
directly under the general who was
in charge of operations at the U.S.
Air Base at Bagram, one of the last
positions held by the U.S. before
the evacuation.
“I could keep my eye on how
this conventional commander was
going to use the Special Operations
Task Force,” the former Navy com-
mander said. “For the most part it
was good. I learned a lot.”
James said he learned “com-
bat patience,” which he defi ned as
when something’s going on in the
fi eld, senior offi cers must give the
guy in fi eld time to work out the
problem.
Although it’s a disappointment
that Afghanistan fell to the Tali-
ban after the U.S. withdrawal, he
doesn’t see it as a waste and said it’s
much diff erent than the fall of Sai-
gon in 1975.
“It’s a sad scenario, but it’s not a
waste,” he said. “It looks like Viet-
nam, but it’s a lot more organized.
(It was) twenty years of war, 20
years of American soldiers dying
there and loss of American treasure.
… On the surface it seems like fall
of Saigon. They were trying to get
everyone out then but didn’t have
enough helicopters.”
James agreed that for a coun-
try like the U.S. to try to rebuild
Afghanistan, it seemed like a futile
eff ort.
“You’re not going to be able to
change a culture that’s been there
for centuries and a totally diff erent
religion,” he said.
But James doesn’t feel the entire
eff ort was a waste.
“Some kinds of seeds were
planted. … It’ll be a shame if Tal-
iban cut off everything,” he said.
“I’m waiting for some suicide
bomber gets on one of the planes
going out. … They’re going to want
to end it with a bang.”
Zak Bradshaw of Enterprise was
evening hours, close earlier
and open later throughout
the week.
“On Sundays and Mon-
days we’re one of the only
restaurants open on Main
Street, so we’re extremely
busy, but extremely short
staff ed,” said Jessica East-
land, manager at Main
Event Sports Bar and Eat-
ery. “If we had an adequate
staff , it would be a very prof-
itable time for us but that’s
the thing — we’ve got peo-
ple who are working over-
time hours when we could
have had other employees
working those hours, so that
we weren’t paying more in
wages. Our wages right now
are through the roof because
we have so many employees
that are working overtime
every single week because
we are so short staff ed.”
Rolling with
the punches
For
Bruce
Rogers,
COVID-19 has presented
the challenge of keeping
two businesses profi table.
He and his daughter, Har-
vest Rogers, own both Tim-
ber’s Feedery in Elgin and
Local Harvest in La Grande.
The COVID-19 pan-
demic
has
presented
unimaginable challenges in
staffi ng for both restaurants.
With the shortage of work-
ers and revolving mandates
for public dining, the own-
ers have adjusted to rolling
with the punches.
“This far into it and with
what we’ve seen, the rules
have changed and the rules
are diff erent and will change
again,” Bruce Rogers said.
“We’re just chameleons at
this point. We just change
and go with the fl ow while
doing our best to remain a
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Andy Marcum/Contributed Photo
Andy Marcum of Enterprise deployed with this group of K9 Marines
from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. These Marines, seen here at Camp
Leatherneck, Afghanistan, and their dogs are vital for the detection of
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the fi eld.
already planning going into the mil-
itary, when the attacks took place
early one day of his junior year of
high school. They were televised all
day. But he hadn’t yet decided on
the branch.
“By 9/11 I’d decided on the
Marine Corps,” he said. “I just
wanted to be a Marine.”
Although 9/11 didn’t change
his plans, it did make them more
profound.
“It just made joining the mili-
tary feel more real,” he said. “You
just knew there was more of a like-
lihood of being in a war by the time
I could actually go in.”
When the invasion of Iraq hap-
pened during March 2003, he knew
he’d be going to Iraq or Afghanistan.
“It didn’t really matter which,”
he said.
Was the national eff ort worth it?
“I can’t agree with all the justi-
fi cation or reasons or policies from
the various administrations over
the past 20 years, but I don’t look
at either of them as having been in
vain,” Bradshaw said. “Afghanistan
is a country we already knew was
harboring al-Qaida and overthrow-
ing the unrecognized Taliban gov-
ernment” was appropriate.
As for Iraq and Saddam Hus-
sein, they were “not good” though
the country was relatively stable.
“I think it was a good thing to get
rid of that government,” he said.
The numerous names of fellow
profi table business.”
On top of the shortage
of workers, Timber’s Feed-
ery is facing a hurdle as
Harvest Rogers takes mater-
nity leave. She said she typ-
ically works open to close
every day, and her absence
has forced Timber’s to limit
orders to takeout and out-
door dining for the time
being.
Closing indoor dining is
a technique that the own-
ers used on both restaurants
to save costs with a limited
staff during the early part of
the pandemic. They looked
at new ideas in order to stay
afl oat during unstable times.
“When you couldn’t have
inside dining, we switched
over to to-go and delivery
only,” Bruce Rogers said.
“We had to start up a deliv-
ery service to remain com-
petitive at that point, but
when we opened back up
Marines who didn’t come home
from Iraq that Bradshaw has tat-
tooed on his side are a regular
reminder that their lives were not a
waste.
“A lot of things that 9/11 changed
were transparent to me because
I hadn’t fl own before so I hadn’t
experienced those security situa-
tions,” he said. “So I didn’t have a
ton of noticeable diff erences. I think
the biggest thing was an expecta-
tion of more terrorist attacks after
9/11. A post-9/11 world created a
world of fear for America, which is
what terrorism’s geared at.”
Public offi cials
Wallowa County Commis-
sioner Susan Roberts served in the
U.S. Marine Corps from 1967-69
— well before 9/11. She worked
at a Marine base handling supply
and logistics, managing men and
material going into and out of the
country.
In 2001, she was mayor of Enter-
prise. She said that at the time, the
city took no direct action as a result
of the attacks.
“It should’ve aff ected everyone,
but the kind of action a small city
in Eastern Oregon would’ve taken
would’ve been a ‘feel-good’ thing,”
she said. “Most of us here felt quite
sure it was a planned event and
… there’s no sense in panicking
everybody.”
But she hasn’t forgotten the trag-
edy and shock of the attacks.
again we shut the delivery
off .”
Both Timber’s Feedery
and Local Harvest changed
hours from seven days a
week to fi ve days a week,
and both close an hour ear-
lier than they used to. One
advantage to owning two
restaurants is the ability to
rotate staff from one loca-
tion to another if one restau-
rant is short.
“We
have
several
employees that are able to
work at both places, mostly
our top three people are very
versatile for us,” Bruce Rog-
ers said. “They fi ll in every-
where for us.”
Filling the gap
With pandemic-related
federal unemployment pro-
grams ending, Bruce Rog-
ers is expecting an increase
in prospective employees.
In addition, students return-
A7
“I’d like to remind people that
after these things happen, we say
we’ll never forget. We build memo-
rials and then move on to other
things,” she said. “When you say
‘We’ll never forget,’ you don’t have
to be out on the street carrying signs
saying ‘We’ll never forget.’ It’s
within yourself to remember.”
Wallowa County Sheriff Joel
Fish wasn’t in the county in 2001;
he was an investigator/detective
with the Catawba County, Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce in North Carolina. He
remembers a shift in the awareness
of law enforcement toward criminal
enterprises.
“We became more cognizant of
criminal groups that might be fund-
ing terrorism,” he said.
He added that a friend became
aware of a group that was smug-
gling tax-free cigarettes to New
York, with the proceeds going to
the terrorist group Hezbollah. That
friend went onto work an FBI task
force focusing on such criminal
activities.
“Law enforcement is the fi rst
guard against terrorism,” Fish said.
“There was more training in my
capacity in North Carolina on iden-
tifying people” who were likely to
have terrorist contacts.
He also told of a gun range there
that had people wanting to come in
and simulate personal combat but
were reluctant to identify them-
selves, which prompted a call to the
sheriff ’s offi ce.
“In law enforcement, in gen-
eral, there’s more training to be on
the lookout,” he said. “We started
noticing things going on around us
with international ties, rather than
just ordinary day-to-day crime.”
One way of not forgetting is
an awareness of how the attacks
changed the world, Roberts said.
“With what’s occurring in the
world today, don’t pretend it won’t
happen again,” she said. “But focus
on the stuff that matters, not the
stuff that doesn’t.”
ing to attend Eastern Ore-
gon University in the fall
are promising for fi lling
positions.
To cope with employ-
ment challenges, the owners
have adjusted the scope of
employees compared to who
they would typically hire in
the past.
“The demographics have
changed,” Bruce Rogers
said. “We’ve started hiring
younger people and we’ve
started hiring older peo-
ple. When we fi nd people
that are qualifi ed, we try to
snatch them up.”
They hired, for exam-
ple, two 16-year-olds in
the summer and had a fam-
ily friend who is a retired
teacher come work for the
restaurants.
“We’ve leaned on friends
and family to help us
through this time as well,”
Rogers said.
Births
A son, Raker Robert
Willis, was born
September 2, 2021 in
Enterprise to Skyler and
Amber Willis of
Enterprise. Grandparents
are Kellie Shear, Scott
Shear, Candi Willis
and Craig Willis.
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