Smoke Signals 11
Tribal Member On New Tour, This One Likely To The Middle East
Frank Grammer is duty-bound and looks for an opportunity to "do his part."
JULY 1, 2004
By Ron Karten
Late in June, Specialist Frank
Grammer, a member of the Confed
erated Tribes of Grand Ronde and
the Army National Guard, began
his latest military odyssey in
LaGrande, Oregon. After three
days there, he was to
head to Portland for a
plane ride to Fort Bliss
in Texas where he will
join other units from
Oregon, North Da
kota, Montana, Utah,
Pennsylvania and
New Jersey. After
wards, he expected to
head to Fort Polk in
Louisiana for a month
before what appears
will be his first combat
assignment, either in
Afghanistan or Iraq.
In October of this
year, Grammer's "six
by two" commitment to
the National Guard is
technically over, but
like tens of thousands
of others, he learned
recently that his com
mitment will be ex
tended. In the face of
it, he is taking the ini
tiative to extend his
commitment for an
other three years.
"I wanted to insure
myself and my family
for the future," he
said.
His childhood was
not that well insured.
His family broke up by
the time he was four.
From the time he was four until his
mother was killed under uncertain
circumstances when he was 13 he
had been shuttled into and out of
49 group and foster homes. Sick of
it, he quit school and lit out for the
streets of Portland, where he lived
homeless for nearly five years.
"I dressed well," he said. "Nobody
ever knew by how I looked that I
was living on the streets."
It was somewhere during his five
years on the streets that he first
learned of his Native heritage.
Even before that, however, he
said, "There was something inside
me that I kind of knew (I was Na
tive) without knowing."
But when he got tired of life on
the streets, he packed up that
knowledge and showed up in Grand
V ' '
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Family Man Tribal member Frank Grammar and his son, Bran
don, at home in Dallas. Father and son had to say goodbye for more than
a year for Grammar's latest assignment with the Army National Guard.
Photo by Ron Karten
Ronde to learn more.
Members of the Reibach family
took him in. "Slowly but surely I
got back on my feet," he said.
Since the beginning of 1999,
Grammer has served across this
country from the Umatilla
Chemical Weapons Depot in Or
egon to Missouri, Washington state
and Alaska and overseas in Ger
many. He has trained as a combat
engineer learning to detonate and
disarm explosives, and to operate a
number of vehicles used for road
construction, including excavators
and dump trucks with which he
helped build virgin roads in severe
Alaskan outlands.
When last we checked in with
Grammer (Smoke Signals, 4103
issue), he was headed to an un
named destination
that everybody as
sumed was Iraq,
but ended up being
the Umatilla Army
Depot, where he
provided "interior
and exterior secu
rity" for nine
months, part of a
Homeland Security
assignment.
"Those who go
through the
struggle, the poli
tics, the hard times,
there's a satisfac
tion that still
shines through,"
he said. "A lot of
people would say
it's hard to under
stand how there's
satisfaction, but
there is. If you've
been there, you
understand. If you
haven't, it's hard to
understand."
"I don't know
what it is about the
job," he said. "It's
just the military it
self. That uniform
represents who you
are inside. Other
people have differ-
ent things in life
representing who they are (inside).
I know they feel the same way.
"It almost seems like (the war's)
not actually for the people, (espe
cially) not the military part of it, but
I receive my orders and get my job
done. The politics is not really for a
soldier. It's for civilian life."
Grammer counts on his Native
roots to bring him home again. As
a great, great grandson of Captain
Frank Quenelle, (a photograph of
Quenelle with Nez Perce's Chief Jo
seph is displayed in the Community
Center), Grammer looks to his heri
tage for strength.
"To help pull me through this, to
bring me home, I'm going to pull on
my Native background. Natives
have always been strong people.
"There's a little bit of snickering
or the jokes here and there from
others who aren't Native. It's just
done out of possibly fear or not
knowing, but whenever they're
around Native people for awhile,
they don't fear us anymore because
(my) being Native just becomes a
part of them.
"There's a lot of honor and a lot of
pride in just being Native," he said.
Along the way, Grammer met
Sergeant Malarkey and Lieutenant
Compton, two of the original soldiers
whose experiences in World War II
were the basis for the recent Steven
Spielberg movie, Band of Brothers,
who were sharing their stories with
the troops.
"The respect and pride they had,"
said Grammer. "They did their part.
Now it's my turn."
Grammer nevertheless reserves
top praise for his wife, Marsha
(Standing Rock Sioux), who has
"always done right by me; just the
smallest things that add up the
most."
"And she always has her own little
things going that's what I love
about her."
Grammer and Marsha have a
baby son, Brandon, and Marsha's
older sons, Robin and Brad, round
out the family living in Dallas.
While Grammer collects old coins
and loves football for spare time
pursuits, "spending time with my
family, that's what matters most,"
he said.
"I don't want to die," he said, "but
I didn't join for the college money."
The concentration required for
demolition work sets the bar high
est for Grammer. "As a combat en
gineer in war, our life expectation
is about seven seconds."
Still, with a certainty that he
knows how to survive, whether on
the streets of Portland, Kabul or
Baghdad, Grammer already has the
question settled in his head.
"When I get back," he said, "I will
feel I have cheated death."
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Animal Kingdom Brad's World Reptiles put on a show at the
Tribal gymnasium in Grand Ronde. The show was funded by a Depart
ment of Education grant. KalimMercier (left.at right) and Michael Reyes
hold an albino Burmese Python named "Sunshine," while Goldie Bly,
(above) age 7, pets an Australian Bearded Dragon. Photos by Peta Tinda