SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
3 B
M ILITARY H ERITAGE C HRONICLES —
Vanport City
B Y C AL A PPLEBEE
Special to the Siuslaw News
I
t’s good to be back on the
pages of the Siuslaw News
bringing you tales of military
heritage, and I thought I would
start with a learning experience
in our own back yard.
“It was a dark and stormy
spring in 1948, and heavy rains
and record snowpack swelled
the Columbia River and its trib-
utaries. On Memorial Day, the
community of Vanport City was
wiped off the map when rushing
waters flooded the lowlands
where it was built, destroying
what had been Oregon’s second-
largest city in just 30 minutes.
Borne out of the wartime
need to address the critical hous-
ing shortage as a result of Henry
J. Kaiser’s phenomenal shipyard
Van Port City, Ore., 1943, once the second-largest city in Oregon, was eventually wiped
out by a giant flood in just 30 minutes five years later in 1948.
success which delivered 455
ships during WWII, this com-
munity — whose buildings
numbered more than 10,000 and
at one time boasted a population
of 40,000 — was built in just
one year’s time.
As a native Oregonian who
grew up on the Oregon coast,
and as a student of military his-
tory, you can imagine my sur-
prise when I first learned of
Vanport City’s existence by
viewing the initial U.S.
Merchant Marine display at our
local Oregon Coast Military
Museum.
I wrote this recently in the
museum’s end-of-year letter to
supporters. And yes, I truly was
surprised, particularly as I read
Manly Maben’s 1987 book
“Vanport.”
It tells a riveting story of a
phenomenal accomplishment in
our state’s and nation’s efforts
during WWII. There are numer-
ous similarities between the
story of Vanport City’s creation
and evolution, and that of Camp
Adair in the Willamette Valley
build during a similar period.
Of course, our society was
completely different then. Right
or wrong, the regulatory con-
straints our society deals with
today certainly didn't exist then.
Can you imagine trying to build
a complete city of 40,000 resi-
dents in one year’s time in
today’s complex society?
Or Camp Adair?
Even though we may be
engaged in a war against terror-
ism today, WWII coalesced and
brought our nation together in a
way we’ll probably never see
again, allowing these great
accomplishments.
The basic story was more
than likely repeated around the
United States in that period. The
urgent war effort placed such a
huge demand for production
workers in a geographic region
that industry, in this case Henry
J. Kaiser, applied great forward
thinking, tenacity and effort to
meet the need.
Advertising around the
nation for workers to meet the
Kaiser shipyard production
needs created an acute housing
shortage in the Portland and
Vancouver area. So, Kaiser sim-
ply set about to build the state’s
second-largest city in one year’s
time.
Maben’s book describes
many of the challenges and
issues that came with such a
herculean effort, including
political and social. Territorial
battles between municipal,
county, state and federal agen-
cies and entities were plenty.
Unintended consequences
resulted from the effort, as often
does, dealing with juvenile
delinquency, race relations and
simply providing services for
basic necessities.
Several positives came from
it as well, such as an early effort
to provide childcare for working
parents, and the establishment
of Vanport College, which even-
tually morphed into Portland
State University.
Miraculously, because the
flood in 1948 that wiped out the
community and took place on a
holiday, also happened during
the post-war period, when the
population of residents num-
bered less than 10,000. As a
result, casualties from the catas-
trophe numbered only 15.
However, due to the intended
temporary nature of the commu-
nity, the vast majority of the
10,000 structures had no foun-
dation and literally floated away
in the flood. Although the com-
munity was never rebuilt, the
disaster resulted in the enact-
ment of the Flood Control Act
of 1950.
The City of Portland eventu-
ally acquired the property for
parks and recreation purposes,
and today it is the site of Delta
Parkway and the Portland
International Raceway.
The finishing touches are tak-
ing place on the updated U.S.
Merchant Marine display, even
as you read this, and you can
learn more by visiting that dis-
play.
Maben’s book is also avail-
able for you to check out of our
new lending library if you
would like even more detailed
information.
Visit the museum on
Kingwood Street from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m., Thursday through
Saturday, or visit www.ore-
goncoastmilitary museum.com.
Us TOO Flor ence
Behind the headlines
541-999-5083
B Y B OB H ORNEY
CANCER SURVIVOR
U S TOO CHAPTER LEADER
M
y younger brother,
Don, and I, along
with two older broth-
ers, grew up on a 360 acre farm
in Indiana where Dad grew
mostly corn, wheat, oats, hay
and raised Angus Cattle.
It was a good life, but look-
ing back, I sometimes wonder
what effect our unprotected
handling and distribution of
insecticides, herbicides and fer-
tilizers had on our later lives.
Although my older brothers
are cancer free (as far as I
know), Don and I fared quite
differently.
Don was diagnosed with
Leukemia (CLL) in his late 50s
and lived “with it” on Active
Surveillance. Being a physi-
cian helped him make that
decision.
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hospital in Albuquerque with
medical issues.
The initial blood test indicat-
ed possible pancreatic cancer
and it was suggested he go to
M.D. Anderson for analysis,
which he did. After being there
for over a week of tests, his
M.D. Anderson doctor told him
he was sure he had pancreatic
cancer, but since they couldn’t
verify it, they naturally could
not initiate any treatment.
So, they sent him home and
said to come back in six weeks.
When he got back to Gallup,
he ended up in the local hospi-
tal within three days. There, he
saw a surgeon based with a
hospital in Albuquerque who
convinced Don that he needed
his gall bladder removed.
While doing that he would
take a look at his pancreas and
if it looked cancerous, he
would remove it. He did not
see any problems with the pan-
creas so only removed Don’s
gall bladder.
Unfortunately, that surgery
was to no avail. Don did not
really regain any quality of life
from it and within several
months ended up at the
University of New Mexico
Hospital in Albuquerque.
Eventually, with those doc-
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tors being unable to identify
what was going on and his con-
dition rapidly deteriorating, he
was moved to hospice care
where he passed away Sept. 25,
2015, at age 75.
Don wanted his children to
know what took his life (in case
it could affect their lives), so
had requested he be autopsied.
The answer came in early
December — neuroendocrine
pancreatic cancer.
In late 2001, my wife,
Marianne, and I had just moved
to Florence. Being 63 years of
age and having followed the
prostate cancer annual PSA
testing recommendation since
turning 50, my first stop to the
clinic was to get my PSA
checked.
My visit was with a substi-
tute physician, Dr. Maureen
Bradley. When I told her my
December 2000 PSA was 4.1
she gasped, “Oh my, I think
you should see a urologist.”
Well, my PSA came back
still 4.1, but, when my urolo-
gist Dr. Peter Bergreen per-
formed the digital rectal exam
(DRE), he didn’t like how the
prostate felt.
Long story short, a biopsy
proved it was cancer. After my
2002 radical prostatectomy, the
pathologist’s report showed
perineural invasion and extra-
capsular extension along with
my Gleason Score of (3+4=7)
— the “good” seven.
Later, due to 3 post-surgery
consecutive increases in my
PSA, I returned for radiation
follow-up from December
2007 to Valentine’s Day 2008.
Don dealt with a cancer
which defied diagnosis. My
cancer has two tests: PSA, the
“early” warning which didn’t
work for me and the DRE, the
“back-up,” which thankfully
did (I still had no symptoms).
Don lived (suffered) for
eight months never knowing
what was wrong and I have had
15 years of quality life since
my initial treatment for
prostate cancer. According to
the American Cancer Society,
pancreatic cancer mortality has
increased from 10.6 to 11.0 per
100,000 over the past 25 years.
Prostate cancer mortality has
decreased by 53 percent during
the same time.
And yet, the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force recom-
mends asymptomatic men (like
I was) not get screened for
prostate cancer, but instead
wait until symptoms arise and
then get tested to see if it is
prostate cancer.