NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Cox
Rudishauser
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
I met a lot of nice people and saw a lot of nice
places,” Cox said. “I always had the support
of my parents, and the calls home to my mom
got me through being away from home.”
California, Rudihauser caught
pneumonia and was hospital-
ized for more than a week.
“It fouled me up,” he said.
He received more than six
weeks of training in infan-
try, then advanced infantry,
and later became a supply ser-
geant, specialist 5 rank.
Rudishauser’s first area
after training was at Camp
Hanford in Washington, a
highly protected area.
“The first atomic bomb,
tested in New Mexico, was
made at Camp Hanford,” he
said. “We were there for air-
craft protection. We had sev-
eral 120mm cannons. The
purpose was to shoot down
airplanes if they came, which
they never did.”
He added, “We practiced
shooting them down — took
about three days for my ears to
quit ringing. The shells were
huge.”
When he turned 21, Rud-
ishauser was sent to Fort
Richardson in Alaska to
be ground support for Fort
Elmendorf Air Force Base,
not far from Anchorage.
It’s now called Joint Base
Elmendorf-Richardson.
“We were headquarters
supply,” he said. “Half-ton
trucks supplied automatic
weapons, self-propelled tanks,
half tracks, anything they could
attach automatic weapons to
and drive around. We would
bring them to headquarters.”
“Elmendorf had an early
warning system,” he said, add-
ing it was a cold war, and it
had not wound down at all.
Although hostilities stopped in
1953, there was never a formal
end to the war.
Being deployed and Dehdadi
In March 2007, Cox was deployed to Iraq.
In 2008 she was deployed to Kuwait. In Jan-
uary 2010, she was deployed to Afghanistan
to build Dehdadi 1 and Dehdadi 2, two bases
for troops.
This project was one of Cox’s favor-
ites because she had the opportunity to be a
crew leader. She enjoyed working with differ-
ent people, working with the equipment and
being able to see a project come to fruition.
“We started from the ground up,” Cox
said. “We took the dozers out there and started
mining it down a couple feet. Then we built
the burrows around it and then leveled out the
area with scrapers to cut down anywhere from
a foot to 6 or 7 feet.”
Her crew also brought gravel in where
they were going to have the equipment yard
and built the security gates. Anything a base
needed — they built it from scratch. Con-
struction did have trials, since some of the
locals created tension and tried to prevent the
base from being completed.
“When we were trying to build the main
supply route, people destroyed the roads ...
so supplies could not go in and out of bases,”
Cox said. “They would RPG (rocket-pro-
pelled grenade) the roads or have small arms
fire at the camp at night. They were just try-
ing to make it (so) there were no suppliers out
of those bases.”
After 10 months of construction, the proj-
ects were finished and Cox returned to Cali-
fornia to finish her service with four years of
shore duty.
Being a woman in the Navy
The entire time Cox served in the Navy,
she said she was never treated differently
or singled out for being a woman. She was
treated the same as everybody else.
However, there were times when her gen-
der came into play. Cox was once called to go
on a project on the Pakistani border, but no
Contributed photo/Cheltzy Cox
Cheltzy Cox guides a dozer as the crew
leader in Afghanistan.
women were serving on the base.
“It was all guys. There was nothing set up
on those bases for women,” Cox said. “My
chief wanted me to go, but they said, ‘There
are no bathrooms set up for women.’ They
talked to me, and I said that I wanted to go.”
So she went to work on the project, despite
the lack of amenities. While at the base, the
men were respectful but didn’t give her any
special treatment, she said.
Advice from a veteran
When considering joining the Navy, it is
important to choose a job that you would stick
with, Cox said.
“Take the positive out of everything that
you do with your job,” Cox said. “It’s not
always gonna be bad. There’s always gonna
be something good in the end.”
Letters and packages from family and
community members also help people in
service feel support that can help them get
through tough times, she said.
“When I was on deployment, my parents
sent me care packages all the time and that
really helped,” Cox said. “That always perked
things up and helped when I got things in the
mail. Other people would send letters, and
that would always help me, too.”
Since being home, she has been working at
Top Ranch and living the ranch life in Monu-
ment. She spends her time raising cows, rais-
ing pigs, building fences, catching fish and
doing all of her favorite outdoor activities.
She said her time in the Navy taught her
patience and gave a different perspective on
how to carry out projects for different pieces
of equipment.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Carol and Byron Rudishauser
He said they were in the
“boondocks” and stayed in
eight-man Quonset huts with
an oil stove in the center and
four bunks on each side.
“The
weather
was
bone-chilling,
sometimes
reaching 45 degrees below
zero,” he said. “We’d hang
wool blankets in front of the
door.”
The food on base was less
than desirable at times.
Once a week, their meal
consisted of World War II-era
C-rations.
“The Air Force didn’t get
them, so if we could get off the
base and eat there, we would,”
he said.
Another memorable expe-
rience was playing a softball
game against another outfit at
midnight. “It wasn’t bright, but
you could see the ball,” he said.
While in Alaska, he
befriended Robert Sooter
of Arkansas, who was also
enlisted. After 64 years, they
still keep in touch and have vis-
ited one another.
For more than 60 years the
friends have exchanged Christ-
mas gifts. Sooter gives Rudi-
hauser black walnuts from
groves in Arkansas and Rudis-
hauser sends Tillamook cheese
from the Oregon coast.
A7
Before Rudishauser’s mil-
itary career was over, he rode
on a ship to Kodiak Island, then
flew to Fort Lewis, Washington.
He was honorably dis-
charged in September 1956 and
married Carol Ricco of John
Day two years later.
Through the GI Bill, Rud-
ishauser earned education
degrees, including a master’s
from Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity in La Grande.
The majority of his 33 years
in education was spent teaching
at Prairie City School. He taught
junior high and high school lan-
guage arts, and he later became
Prairie City principal.
When the Bates Mill closed,
students who stayed in the area
came to Prairie City, but other
families left to find work else-
where. At one point, Prairie
City High School had an enroll-
ment of 256.
Rudishauser passed on the
job of superintendent/principal,
since he and his family put up
hay in the summers at Golden
Willow Ranch on Indian Creek
Road, which had belonged to
Carol’s family.
He retired 20 years ago, at
age 65.
He is now a member of Prai-
rie City’s American Legion
Post 106 and in the past was on
the Prairie City Volunteer Fire
Board and was voted a John
Day Elks Lodge 1834 Exalted
Ruler twice.
Rudishauser said his mil-
itary service taught him to
respect the flag, the country
and the people.
He said what stands out the
most was learning “tolerance
of other people, because we
had people from the east coast,
south and west, they have dif-
ferent ways, and you just have
to learn to be tolerant of others
... and also taking orders.”
Meals and events planned for veterans
Blue Mountain Eagle
Are you a veteran? Several
Grant County businesses plan
to provide meals and more for
veterans. On Veterans Day, The
Outpost, in collaboration with
True Value, will be providing
free meals to veterans all day.
Veterans can choose between
breakfast, lunch or dinner for
their free meal. The Squeeze-In
is partnering with Les Schwab
Tires to provide a free meal for
veterans all day.
The Elks Lodge will be
hosting several events for vet-
erans. On Nov. 8, members of
the Grant County Piecemakers
Quilt Guild will award Quilts
of Valor to several local vet-
erans. The event will provide
a taco feed, which will be free
for veterans and children under
3, or $6 per person.
The Elks Lodge and Amer-
ican Legion will host a Veter-
ans Day Ceremony on Nov.
11 at the Seventh Street Com-
plex at 11 a.m. After the cere-
mony is over, the Elks Lodge
will host a free beef stew lunch,
which is available to anybody
who wants to go.
A dinner sponsored by
the American Legion Aux-
iliary Prairie City Unit 106
will be provided at the Prairie
City School cafeteria at 6 p.m.
Nov. 11. Glazed ham will be
the main dish, and people can
bring a potluck dish to share.
For your service...
For your sacrifi ce...
For our freedom!
We thank you!
“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of
courage and the soul.” ~ John F. Kennedy
John Day Elk’s Lodge
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Grant County Chamber of Commerce
301 W Main St., John Day
541-575-0547
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