4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL FEBRUARY 21, 2018
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: Tillamook Guerillas
By Finn JD John
For The Sentinel
Early 1942 was a really nerve-racking time to
be an Oregonian — especially if you lived on the
coast.
The United States had just gone to war against
a country that was already famous for being able
to deliver large amounts of force anywhere within
600 miles of its aircraft carriers. No other country
in the world, at that time, was better at surprise
attacks; and no other country in the world could
bring those attacks to bear farther away from its
home shores.
So although Japan itself was thousands of miles
away on the other side of the Pacifi c, there was a
real sense in coastal Oregon and Washington that
the Pacifi c might as well be a very large river for
all the protection it would afford, if the Japanese
decided to invade. Oregon and Washington were,
in a real sense, the front lines.
So there were plenty of heartburn pills sold in
Oregon drugstores when, a few months into the
war, the Oregon National Guard got called up to
go fi ght in Europe, leaving the state wide open
and defenseless.
In Tillamook, a man named Stewart P. Arnold
had an idea for a way to do something about that.
Arnold was a First World War veteran, and had
lost his sight in combat. But he seems to have lost
none of his fi ghting spirit. He arranged the orga-
nizational meeting of something called the “Gue-
rilla Rifl e Club” at the Pleasant Valley Grange on
March 5, 1942, and a total of 69 local men signed
up.
The plan was for this loose association of lo-
cal men, packing their own hunting rifl es, to be
ready on a moment’s notice to resist a Japanese
invasion.
Their organization was paramilitary, with offi -
cers elected by the membership militia-style and a
military chain of command. At the organizational
meeting, Arnold was elected commanding offi cer,
with the “rank” of colonel; and the membership
elected a captain (Art Sperber) and a fi rst and sec-
ond lieutenant (Earl Clarine and Ralph Blum) as
well.
But they were defi nitely not an Army unit.
They were civilian volunteers, with no uniforms,
sponsored by no government. If captured by an
invading force, they would be treated as fi fth-col-
umnists, not entitled to the protections of the Ge-
neva Convention.
That was fi ne; the men understood that. They
also understood that if the Japanese actually in-
vaded Oregon, not having the protections of the
Geneva Convention would be the least of their
worries.
Within a month, the Tillamook County Gue-
rilla Rifl e Club had swelled to more than 1,000
members and attracted national attention.
“(There are) snuff-dipping mackinawed men
from the forests; ruddy, overalled farmers of stur-
dy Swiss stock; pale businessmen from the little
towns,” wrote a Time Magazine reporter in the
March 30 issue. “They had no uniforms, did no
drilling, furnished their own guns and ammuni-
tion for target practice. But they were dead shots
and they were ready to shoot.”
"I think a lot of guys in the Guerrillas were
guys who couldn't get into the military, or were
disabled for one reason or another,” Garibaldi
historian Jack Graves told the Tillamook Head-
light-Herald’s reporter in 2010, “and older guys,
including ones who had already served their time
in the military."
There were some younger lads as well —
16-year-old boys too young for Army service, but
as good with a .30-30 as any 25-year-old Marine.
“If the Japs try to land in the bays or inlets -
Netarts, Tillamook, or lesser coves — they will
fi nd guerrillas on cliffs, sandspits, and in the bogs
— using their own ammunition and rifl es,” Col-
onel Arnold told the Headlight-Herald reporter.
“Our motto is, keep your guns cleaned and oiled,
and your powder dry.”
It was more than just that, though.
“My dad (Roy Graves) told me they had mined
all the bridges that connected Tillamook to the
(Willamette) Valley,” historian Graves told the
Headlight-Herald reporter. “There were teams of
two to three men assigned to each bridge.”
Especially after Time Magazine’s article came
out, the idea of forming guerilla militia compa-
nies spread wildly across the state. A similar
group sprang up almost immediately in Lincoln
County. A group calling itself the Bushwackers
had already formed in southeast Portland, three
months before; another guerilla club now formed
in Independence; and, across the state, as April
dawned, the guerilla-militia movement started
taking Oregon by storm.
Meanwhile, the Oregon State Guard was grow-
ing nearly as quickly. Formed in 1940 as a mili-
tary force answering directly to the governor, the
state guard was the logical organization to take on
what the guerillas were doing.
The State Guard got scant support from Wash-
ington, D.C., until word got out about the gue-
rilla companies. At that point, Army leaders
started pondering worst-case scenarios involving
random gangs of poorly-trained armed men run-
ning around the countryside looking for Japanese
soldiers to kill. It wasn’t hard to imagine ways
this could turn out very badly, and the Army had
no way of knowing what kind of training these
guerillas were getting. Soon the pressure was on
Governor Charles Sprague to rein them in — and
Washington was suddenly in a far more generous
mood as regards rifl es, ammunition, and training
supplies.
Sprague, who had been supportive at fi rst, now
started encouraging the guerillas to join forces
with the state guard.
“One thing made clear in this war is the value
of guerrilla fi ghting; and our local fi ghters, famil-
iar with the terrain, can be of great value in repel-
ling the enemy,” he wrote, in a press release on
March 17. “They should be enrolled in a military
body, however; otherwise they would not be enti-
tled to the rights of prisoners of war, if captured,
but would be subjected to immediate execution.
They should also be regularized for training and
for proper coordination with regular troops.”
In May, the federal government, dissatisfi ed
with the pace of absorption, actually ordered all
the guerilla clubs to disband or be absorbed into
the state guard. Most of them, by this time, had
done so; but “Arnold’s Raiders,” the biggest of
the bunch, still held onto its independence.
An awkward showdown was avoided by the
expedient of redesignating the Tillamook County
Guerilla Rifl e Club as a non-military organiza-
tion, and it continued as an independent club.
Ironically, it was the following month that the
Japanese came as close as they ever would to actu-
ally invading the mainland U.S., when the subma-
rine I-25 hove to off the mouth of the Columbia and
shelled Battery Russell. That, of course, was a coun-
ty away from the Tillamook Guerillas’ home base;
but it’s a safe bet that some of Arnold’s Raiders were
on their way northward, rifl es locked and loaded, the
minute they got the word — just in case.
Dr. Fuhrman: Pomegranates can help against disease
By Joel Fuhrman MD
For The Sentinel
Ruby red, delicious and nu-
trient rich pomegranates pack
a mighty punch in safeguard-
ing your health. Pomegranate
contains a unique and powerful
antioxidant called punicalagin,
the most abundant antioxidant
in pomegranate, responsible for
more than half of the antiox-
idant activity of pomegranate
juice.
Pomegranate juice has been
analyzed to have greater anti-
oxidant capacity than red wine,
grape juice, cranberry juice,
green tea or acai juice. Drinking
pomegranate juice measurably
reduces oxidative stress (the
toxic effects of free radicals) in
healthy humans. Much research
has shown that pomegranate’s
potent antioxidant capacity pro-
vides protection against heart
disease, cancer and cognitive
impairment.
Pomegranate was one of the
earliest cultivated fruits, and has
been prominent throughout his-
tory in art, culture, and religion,
from the story of the seasons in
Greek mythology to Romeo and
Juliet to the Bible.
Pomegranate is ubiquitous in
Middle Eastern cooking and its
super food status, unique fl a-
vor and texture has made it in-
creasingly popular in the U.S. A
pomegranate contains hundreds
of tiny, crisp arils; each aril is a
seed encased in a juicy pulp, a
tasty mix of sweet and tart fl a-
vors.
Health benefi ts of pomegran-
ates - anti-cancer:
1) Pomegranate has anti-in-
fl ammatory effects that may
protect against cancer and other
chronic diseases. 2) Pomegran-
ate has anti-angiogenic proper-
ties, meaning that they may help
to prevent growing tumors from
acquiring a blood supply, pre-
venting those tumors from re-
ceiving the nutrients that would
allow them to grow larger. 3)
Pomegranate is one of the few
foods (mushrooms are another)
that contain natural aromatase
inhibitors. This means that they
inhibit the production of estro-
gen, which can reduce breast
cancer risk. 4) After treatment
for prostate cancer, two studies
have shown that pomegranate
juice or supplements slowed the
increase in PSA.
Protection against heart dis-
ease:
5) Pomegranate phytochem-
icals reduce LDL oxidation (a
contributor to atherosclerotic
plaque development). 6) Pome-
granate phytochemicals have
blood pressure-reducing proper-
ties. 7) In a study of patients with
severe carotid artery blockages,
after one ounce of pomegranate
juice daily for one year, there
was a 30 percent reduction in
atherosclerotic plaque. In strik-
ing contrast, in the participants
who did not take the pomegran-
ate juice atherosclerotic plaque
increased by 9 percent.
Guards memory and brain
function:
8) Pomegranate supplements
taken before and after surgery
prevented the postoperative
memory dysfunction associated
with coronary artery bypass or
heart valve surgery. 9) In those
with mild memory complaints,
individuals drinking pomegran-
ate juice daily performed better
on a memory task compared to
placebo and displayed increased
brain activation measured by
functional MRI.
Removing the edible arils
from the pomegranate is easy
when you know how to do
it. The easiest way is to cut it
around the diameter, split it into
two and then pound the back
with the back of a large serving
spoon. The fl avor and health
benefi ts of pomegranate make
the effort well worth it.
Enjoy fresh pomegranates,
especially when they are in
season, and. When selecting
pomegranates, look for a ripe,
deep-colored fruit with a red to
reddish-brown outer rind that is
heavy for its size. Pomegranate
season typically runs from Oc-
tober through February – it’s
nearly over now, but you can
store some arils in the freezer or
look for packaged frozen arils to
get the health benefi ts of pome-
granate all year round.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
board certifi ed family physician
specializing in lifestyle and nu-
tritional medicine.
C ottage G rove
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IN BRIEF FEB. 21-MARCH 4
•
•
The Cottage Grove First Impressions Program is a
project of the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce,
City of Cottage Grove, Main Street Program, and the
Rural Economic Vitality team from Rural Develop-
ment Initiatives (RDI). First Impressions partners two
communities in the region, to provide volunteer teams
to visit and provide an objective feedback. In August,
a visiting team of volunteers from Oakridge conducted
a day-long “fi rst impressions” assessment in Cottage
Grove. Results will be provided at a luncheon on Feb.
22 at noon. For more information, contact (541) 256-
0551.
Community Conversations Tuesday, Feb. 27 from 6-8
p.m. at the Cottage Grove High School cafeteria. Free
event.