WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
COMMUNITY
VETERANS
Continued from Page 1A
Schmitt, 60, served 26 years
in the Army as chaplain in
the reserves, guard, and active
duty and served in different
units including the 422 Signal
Battalion at Reno, Nevada;
15th Support Battalion 1st
Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood,
Texas; and the 1st Brigade
Stryker, 25th Infantry Division
at Fort Lewis, Washington. He
deployed overseas fi ve times.
Schmitt thanked those
attending and gave a special
shout out to Vietnam veterans.
He talked about one of
his deployments to Mosul,
Iraq, where it was “a little too
exciting.” His brigade lost 44
soldiers.
“A small number in the
terms of those who served in
World War Two and Vietnam
for a brigade but I can tell you,
and as you all know, every life
is precious and those men that
I served with, they died honor-
ably,” Schmitt said. “They died
fi ghting for this country, they
died fi ghting for the men and
women that were right next to
them.”
He told a story about Pfc.
Oscar Sanchez, a member of
his brigade.
It was in 2005 during
the election in Iraq and the
insurgency decided Mosul was
the place they “were going to
discredit the election so they
would have to call it.”
Schmitt said his brigade
killed around 700 insurgents,
but “we had some pretty hor-
rifi c losses ourselves.”
“It was a brutal time,” he
said.
He remembered that on Dec.
29, 2004, his unit established
four outposts in Mosul. One of
the favorite tactics of the insur-
gents was to load vehicles with
explosives and try to get them
onto the American base where
they would detonate.
Sanchez and others were on
guard duty when a dump truck
loaded with 1,500 pounds of
explosives was heading for
their outposts.
They knew it was a suicide
bomber and fi red at the cab
of the truck behind concrete
barriers.
Schmitt said Sanchez knew
that if he kept standing so he
could fi re, he could be killed.
But if he dropped behind the
barrier he would be protected.
“But in so doing, would allow
that dump truck to get closer
and closer to that gate, maybe
even break through that barri-
er and get into OP Tampa and
kill a bunch of his buddies,”
Schmitt said. “So what’d he do?
He kept fi ring like American
soldiers do. Somebody hit him.
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Jayson Jacoby / Baker City Herald
A Baker City homeschool teacher, Tala Yencopal, back row center, said she brought her
students to the Veterans Day memorial Monday to help them grasp the "importance
to understand our country's foundations and the sacrifi ces that allow them their free-
doms." From left, Luke Hills, Maddie Yencopal, Sadie Yencopal, Jayden Yencopal (back),
Zayne Hills and Ethan Hills.
said Schmitt.
He also mentioned 2 mil-
lion Americans 18 years old
and below are adopted from
other countries “regardless of
gender, color, and nationality.”
He closed his speech by
saying that all soldiers,
sailors, airmen and Marines
who come to the end of a long,
grueling deployment ask
themselves “was it worth it?”
— Lt. Col. Perry Schmitt,
retired Army chaplain
“The answer is yes,”
Schmitt said. “But you also
Dump truck driver, the suicide ask yourself a second thing:
bomber, he dies. It triggers the Will anybody remember I
mechanism and Sanchez, Pfc. suffered in this place? Will
Oscar Sanchez, is killed with
anybody remember that I saw
the shrapnel. I’ll never forget
my friends die in this place?
that. Never forget all the men Will anybody remember
that I’ve served with and all
that...that I will carry terrible
the men who fell.”
memories all my life because
Schmitt said his best friend of this place?”
and other friends he made also
He thanked everyone for
were killed in the war.
remembering the fallen and
“It’s war and every life is
those who served.
precious,” he said.
“For those who lived and
Schmitt gestured to the
yet carry those terrible
VFW Memorial and said:
memories,” Schmitt said.
“Baker County, you have paid
“And I want to say thank
a tremendous price for this
you from the bottom of my
country. In blood and in trea- heart for the veterans who
sure and with the memories
didn’t get to say it to you.
of those who have served that Thank you from the bottom of
never go away, all of your life
our hearts for remembering
and I thank you for that and
to come out to honor veterans
your country is grateful.”
on this Veterans Day here in
Schmitt talked about how Baker, Oregon.”
much money the U.S. spends
Schmitt grew up in South-
to help other countries follow- ern Idaho and joined the
ing wars.
Army on April 1, 1992, at the
“What country in the his-
age of 31.
tory of the world gives money
He had attended college at
to their defeated enemies?”
Northwest Nazarene Univer-
he said.
sity in Nampa. He pastored
The U.S. expended in
at three churches in Oregon,
today’s dollars $5 trillion to
Utah, and Nevada before he
rebuild Europe after World
joined the Army.
War II.
“It was after a long
“No country is like this,”
education period to become
“Every life is precious and
those men that I served
with, they died honorably.
They died fi ghting for this
country, they died fi ghting
for the men and women
that were right next to
them.”
L OCAL B RIEFING
Thanksgiving meals to be distributed
November 19 at Safeway grocery in Baker City
Employees from the Baker City Safeway store will distribute
Thanksgiving meal packages starting at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday,
Nov. 19 in the east parking lot of the store at 1205 Campbell St.
The meals were bought with donations from customers
through the Turkey Bucks program, offered at checkout for the
past few weeks.
More than 180 meals will be available on a fi rst-come, fi rst-
served basis.
4-H Christmas Bazaar scheduled December 6
and 7 at OSU Extension Service
The 4-H Christmas bazaar is set for Friday, Dec. 6, from noon
to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the
OSU Extension Service, 2600 East St. To reserve a table, call
541-523-6418.
Best Friends of Baker
Saturday Market
Open EVERY Saturday 8 AM - 2 PM
DONATE BAGS OF UNOPENED
PET FOOD AND GET 10% OFF!
2950 Church St, Baker City (fi rst left after Broadway turns into 10th)
We accept debit, credit, cash & checks!
Donations accepted Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays 9-1
(All proceeds benefi t the animals of Baker County)
Carmen Ott of Best Friends of Baker hopes to fi nd
a foster home for Foxy, a Pomeranian abandoned
by her owners recently at a local rest area.
Animal rescue
group seeking
volunteers
a minister in the Church of
the Nazarene that I really felt
strongly the call to serve in
the military,” Schmitt said.
He began in the 422nd
Signal Battalion at Reno. He
loved it and decided to apply
for active duty and was sent
to Fort Hood, Texas.
He deployed twice to Ku-
wait in 1997.
“I thought Texas was hot,
but the 120s to 130s was
brutal with sand storms,”
said Schmitt, who has also
deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo
and Iraq.
His deployment to Iraq
as brigade chaplain for the
First Brigade 25th Infantry
Stryker Brigade Combat
Team was diffi cult, he said.
“It was tough to come back
from that,” said Schmitt, who
has been diagnosed with
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder).
“I worked really hard to try
and get my life back,” he said.
Schmitt said it took around
four years to feel like he was
going to live again.
Today, he is retired but
works for the Army as a
Suicide Prevention Program
manager for the 807th Medi-
cal Division in Salt Lake
City.
He said he can empathize
with veterans who are strug-
gling but are relucant to talk
about their troubles.
“Veterans don’t like open-
ing up to other people, it’s just
kind of the nature of the busi-
ness and it takes a long time
to talk to anybody else about
it,” Schmitt said. “I wouldn’t
talk to anybody unless they
wore the uniform.”
ARREST
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Carmen Ott wants to fi nd a loving home for every
dog that comes her way, but sometimes that’s not the
hardest part.
Just getting the dog can be the bigger challenge.
Ott, a volunteer with Best Friends of Baker, an ani-
mal rescue nonprofi t, has just that problem now with
a pair of dogs that have been seen for the past several
days off Highway 30 near Haines.
One is a brindle color boxer type, and the other a
black, long-haired border collie. Neither neighbors nor
Best Friends volunteers has been able to entice the
dogs, and Ott worries the animals won’t survive wintry
weather.
She said the collie appears to be injured.
Ott said she has been setting out food in the area,
hoping the dogs will fi nd it.
The situation is different with Foxy, a female Pomer-
anian whose owners, who are truck drivers, abandoned
the dog at a freeway rest area in Baker County on Oct.
28.
Another truck driver found Foxy and drove her to
Baker City, where he handed the dog over to Oregon
State Police Trooper Levi Macy.
Macy brought Foxy to Ott, who has been fostering
the dog for the past two weeks and is hoping to fi nd a
permanent home for the dog, who is about 10 years old
and in good health except for some arthritis in her hips.
Foxy is implanted with a microchip, and Ott said she
used data from the chip to call the dog’s owners. She
said they didn’t want the dog back.
Macy said he will pursue charges against the owners
for animal abandonment. He needs to confi rm whether
Foxy was left at the rest area in Baker Valley or at
Weatherby near Durkee.
Ott said her current efforts to fi nd a home for Foxy,
and the struggles to corral the two dogs near Haines,
highlight Best Friends’ “desperate need for volunteers
and members.”
More information is available by calling Ott at 541-
519-4530.
said. She later signed her
interest over to Robert
Continued from Page 1A
Whitnah.
The two couples opened
Thamert had been the
BeeHive Homes of Baker bookkeeper for the busi-
City, an assisted living cen- ness, Robert Whitnah
ter, in 2014.
said. Once Thamert left,
Robert Whitnah said
an audit was conducted
Thamert also had worked in October and November
as an investigator for the of 2017. That’s when it
Whitnahs’ law offi ce.
became apparent that
Thamert left the busi-
money was missing, Whit-
ness in October 2017 to
nah said.
move to Prineville to work
Thamert is accused of
as a building inspector for taking about $100,000
Crook County.
from the business, he said.
When he left, Thamert
Because he had con-
signed his interest in the
sidered Thamert his best
business over to Krischele friend, Whitnah said he
Whitnah, Robert Whitnah had no reason to doubt
Mobile Service
Outstanding
Computer Repair
Any issue $40 fl at rate
Call or Text 24/7
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Have an
OUTSTANDING
Thanksgiving!
www.outstandingcomputerrepair.com
Refurbished Desktop & Laptops For Sale
House calls (let me come to you!)
Drop Offs & Remote Services are Available
All credit cards accepted
that Thamert was taking
good care of the business
accounts.
Whitnah said the resi-
dents of the assisted living
center are not victims in
the alleged crimes.
Thamert is accused of
stealing money from the
business accounts.
Visiting judge Erin
Landis of Malheur County
granted Thamert a con-
ditional release after he
was booked at the Baker
County Jail Tuesday.
Conditions of his release
prohibit him from con-
tacting Robert Whitnah;
Jessica Hatfi eld, secretary
at Whitnah’s law offi ce; or
Nicole Howerton, ad-
ministrator at the senior
living center, which was
renamed Memory Lane
Homes about a year ago.
Thamert also was or-
dered not to enter Whit-
nah’s law offi ce at 1930
First St.; his property on
Sparta Lane; or Memory
Lane Homes at 3078
Resort St.
Thamert, who is repre-
sented by Bend attorney
Erick Ward, is scheduled
to enter a plea to the
charges at 11:30 a.m. Jan.
6 in Baker County Circuit
Court.
HELP NEEDED!
Best Friends of Baker & New Hope have gathered
the resources to trap, spay/neuter and vaccinate a
colony of feral cats IF we have somewhere to put them
afterward. If you have a barn on your property and are
willing to provide food & water for a few cats, they will
serve as loyal mousers! Please call 541-523-6863
Working cats need very basic care: shelter and access to
food & water in all seasons. They WILL continue to hunt
when fed! (Everyone needs fuel to get the job done!)
FOOD DONATIONS NEEDED
ȱěȱȱȱȱ¢ȱȱ
¢ȱȱ¢ȱşȬŗȱȱ¢ȱŞȬŘ
ȱȱŘşśŖȱȱǰȱȱ¢
Save a life and
evict those mice!
Call 541-523-6863
Ad sponsored by Jane Barrett