Smoke signals., July 15, 2008, 2008 Veterans' Powwow, Page 4, Image 20

MOKE SIGNALS
Bobb reunites with Vietnam Marine veterans
JULY 15, 2008
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
Veterans' Powwow weekend
was full of memories for Tribal
Council member Steve Bobb Sr.
"In Vietnam," Bobb said, "I was
witness to an accident. We were
security at an ammo dump that
had blown up in 1968. Shells were
all over the place and some were
burnt out, but the word was out
don't pick anything up because
you never knew.
"It was on Hill 327 in Saigon. It
was late April, early May of 1970. A
truck took us to the towers that were
our posts, and we were up on the
towers and talking on the phones.
"There was a kid below me. I re
member thinking he was new to
Vietnam or to us at the time. He
found this mortar, and he was trying
to pull it up with his lunch bucket. He
tied the mortar onto it, but it wouldn't
come up, so he went down the ladder
and picked it up by hand."
Move the clock ahead to the 2008
Veterans' Powwow in Grand Ronde.
Meet Harold Scott, who goes by
Scott. He is mostly blind with a
metal fabricated hand and arm.
Otherwise, he's still tall, strong and
full of recollections.
"I don't recall the accident," Scott
says, "but I do remember the time
Ken and I got
drunk and
shot at a ser
geant." Scott is with
another buddy
from Hill 327,
Ken Howard,
and their
wives. Scott,
Howard and
Bobb are re
membering a
1970 ammuni
tion dump on
the other side
of the world.
They are
standing un
der the Grand
Ronde Veter
ans' Memorial,
designed, as it
happens, by
Bobb.
"Now, I'm watching all this,"
Bobb said of Scott and the 1970
explosives. "He got it and started
back up the ladder. One step, two,
three and on the fourth step it went
off. You couldn't see anything for
a few minutes through the smoke
and the bits of everything flying,
but when it cleared, there he was,
flopping around two feet above the
Tribal Council member Steve Bobb Sr., right, participates in
the noon Grand Entry of the 2008 Grand Ronde Veterans'
Powwow on Saturday, July 1 2. Accompanying him is Ken
Howard, left, and Harold Scott, center. The men served in
the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam together.
ground, then on the ground and he
let out this awful screaming.
"I had to get everybody off the
phones and call Operations, which
was where all the big guys were.
"I was only 20 years old at the
time, and I didn't know what I was
doing, and they said, 'Go down and
do what you can.' I didn't want to
go down. I swear I didn't, but I
thought they were ordering me and
I couldn't disobey the orders.
"As I came up on him, it was a
horrendous sight."
And here is how this all came
together.
"That scene has haunted me for
38 years," Bobb said.
So when the state of Oregon
asked veterans to tell their stories,
this is the story that Bobb told.
Along with the many others, it
was recorded and posted on the
Internet. Roll the clock forward to
August 2007. Bobb took a call from
Veterans' Affairs. Out of the blue,
she said that a man from outside of
Pittsburgh, Pa., had been reading
the story on the Internet and he
was this kid's best friend.
"The kid had survived," Bobb
said. "He had lost part of his left
arm and was 90-percent blind,
but he was living on the San Juan
Islands off the Washington state
coast. All these years just a stone's
throw away."
So, back to the powwow, and Scott's
telling the story about how Ken
Howard sent him the story over the
Internet, and "I'm listening," he said,
"to Steve tell about the young Marine
in the tower, and I thought, 'Oh that
poor dumbass Marine.' And then it
hit me like a sledgehammer."
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Above, Tribal Elder Bob Tom served as one of
the two masters of ceremonies for the 2008
Grand Ronde Veterans' Powwow July 11-13.
At left, Joseph Martinez (Pueblo) dances a
sneak-up dance during the Men's Traditional
Dance.
Below left, Nolan Stevens, 10, (Eastern
Shoshone) does a grass dance.
Below, Grand Ronde's Eagle Beak Drum group
drums at the 2008 Grand Ronde Veterans'
Powwow.
I I v r-r-s