WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
Former mayor’s son talks
about father’s WWII heroics
By JADE McDOWELL
STAFF MEMBERS
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry speaks about hydro electric
power at a press conference after touring the McNary Dam
with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, on Monday in Umatilla.
Energy Secretary
Perry visits Northwest
By GEORGE PLAVEN
STAFF WRITER
U.S. Secretary of En-
ergy Rick Perry was non-
committal Monday when
asked about a proposal in
the president’s budget to
privatize the Bonneville
Power
Administration
transmission grid follow-
ing a tour of McNary Dam
along the Columbia River.
Perry, who was joined
by congressmen Greg
Walden, R-Oregon, and
Dan Newhouse, R-Wash-
ington, met briefl y with
reporters outside the dam
where he said hydroelec-
tricity will continue to play
an important role in Amer-
ica’s energy strategy.
The Trump administra-
tion has proposed selling
off transmission assets
owned by BPA, which
markets electric power
generated by the Columbia
River system — including
McNary Dam. Northwest
lawmakers have roundly
criticized the plan, saying
it would raise rates for
consumers and affect reli-
ability in rural areas.
Both Walden and New-
house signed on to a letter
sent June 5 to Perry and
Mick Mulvaney, director
of the White House Offi ce
of Management and Bud-
get, urging them to support
the BPA.
“We believe divesting
BPA’s transmission assets
will harm individuals and
businesses, divert capital
needed for further infra-
structure investment in the
Northwest, and undermine
regional utility coordina-
tion,” the letter reads in
part. “BPA has helped to
develop and administer the
complex electrical system
that powers the Northwest,
now providing affordable
and reliable power to over
12 million people and the
businesses that help the re-
gion thrive.”
When asked where he
stood on the issue, Perry
only said that they should
not be afraid to have that
conversation before mov-
ing on to another topic.
Walden was more di-
rect in his defense of the
agency. He expressed con-
fi dence that the BPA will
remain public, adding that
the notion of privatization
has united just about every
member of the Northwest
delegation.
“(BPA) does its job.
And it has a darn important
job in our region,” Walden
said.
On the subject of hydro-
electricity and renewable
energy as a whole, Perry
said he is an “all-of-the-
above guy,” pointing to
the development of wind
power and fracked natu-
ral gas during his time as
governor of Texas. Hy-
droelectricity will play
an important role moving
forward Perry said, and he
commended the work done
at McNary Dam.
“My hat’s off to every
different part of this oper-
ation to make sure it runs
smoothly,” he said.
McNary Dam was just
the fi rst stop for Perry as
he arrived in northeast
Oregon and southeast
Washington. On Tuesday,
he traveled to the Tri-Cit-
ies for a visit to the Pa-
cifi c Northwest National
Laboratory, HAMMER
Federal Training Cen-
ter and Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
Perry said Monday that
security at Hanford is “as
good as there is in the
world,” despite a partial
tunnel collapse in May that
contained highly radioac-
tive waste.
“We never like to have
surprises, but we have
them from time to time to
time,” he said. “The long-
term cleanup of that site is
what’s important. That’s
what I wanted to see.”
He described both Han-
ford and McNary Dam
as examples of American
strength and ingenuity,
including Hanford’s role
in developing the nucle-
ar bombs that helped end
World War II.
“This is a fascinating
part of America’s story,”
Perry said. “There’s ex-
traordinary history.”
As family members cele-
brate former Umatilla mayor
George Hash’s 95th birthday,
his son Randy is hoping that
his father’s legacy is not for-
gotten.
Hash, who turned 95 on
Tuesday, was mayor from
1991 to 2004. But many years
before Hash worked to pro-
mote economic development
in western Umatilla County,
he was being honored for his
heroics during World War II.
Randy said his father nev-
er really shared stories from
the war with his family until
later in life, when Randy was
a parent himself. He even-
tually learned that his dad,
a member of the 101st Air-
borne Division, was one of
the fi rst Americans to para-
chute into Normandy behind
enemy lines ahead of the
D-day invasion of Normandy
in France. He later became a
prisoner of war in Holland,
but eventually escaped.
“George A. Hash is some-
what of a World War II hero,”
Randy said. “He’s featured in
the Smithsonian.”
In a video interview with
George online, featured with
other veterans’ oral histories,
he said he chose to be a para-
trooper when he enlisted be-
cause he wanted to be in an
outfi t “that was going over
there to do some business.”
“I fi gured that was the best
choice if I wanted some com-
bat,” George said.
He also said he was “no
kind of a hero,” just one of
thousands of soldiers follow-
ing orders.
Randy said one of his fa-
ther’s brothers-in-arms called
him out of the blue years ago
to tell him about the day his
father was captured. The
Germans had killed several
members of their company,
and George grabbed a gun
and went off by himself to
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY RANDY HASH
George Hash in 2017 and as a paratrooper during World War II.
ambush the Germans that
had been picking them off.
The man told Randy they
saw George from a distance
keep shooting Germans until
he had taken too many bul-
lets to his arm and shoulder to
continue re-loading. At that
point, they thought George
was dead. They later found
out he had been loaded into
the same fl atbed truck as the
injured Germans he had just
shot and taken to Stalag 3C,
a camp that held more than
1,500 American POWs, for
interrogation and imprison-
ment.
Hash was imprisoned for
561 days. Randy said many
of the prisoners died from
dysentery, and his father had
lingering digestive problems
for the rest of his life from
going more than a year and
a half with a barely adequate
amount of food.
“They were both starv-
ing to death and freezing to
death,” he said.
At one point George was
being held in a building
where some of the fl oor-
boards had been torn up to
burn for warmth. As the Ger-
mans began to load men into
cattle cars to move them to a
new camp, George and an-
other man hid under the fl oor
and got some of their fellow
prisoners to help cover them
back up.
“The other guys didn’t
want to do anything (to try
and escape), because they
knew they would get shot if
they were caught,” Randy
said.
He said his father told him
that he and the other prisoner
waited until they didn’t hear
any more movement in the
camp and then split up and
left on foot. George crossed
on foot into Poland, where
the Polish army helped hide
him from the Germans, until
he was able to stow away on
a Merchant Marine vessel
and eventually make his way
back to the U.S., where he
was sent to California to re-
cover and train.
“They were preparing
to ship out to Japan, but the
atomic bomb put an end to
that,” Randy said.
He said when he was a kid
he had no idea that his father
had led such an adventurous
life. There were fl ashes of the
tough POW, though, such as
the day that Randy and his
friends were lazing around
the gym at Hermiston High
School and his dad came in
and started doing one-handed
pull-ups.
“He said something like
‘You guys should use this
equipment’ and walked out,”
Randy said. “Boy, my friends
were sure impressed with
how strong my dad was.”
Randy said his dad was
also known as a talented box-
er. Despite his dad’s strength
and fi ghting skills he nev-
er once saw his father lose
his temper and use physical
force on anyone, even when
provoked.
Some of George’s chil-
dren and grandchildren
followed his footsteps into
military service, including
Randy, who served in the
Coast Guard.
The Hash family moved
to Umatilla County in the
1950s, when George got a
job as a teacher at Umatilla
High School. He then taught
shop and business classes —
“career technical education”
in today’s terms — at Herm-
iston High School.
He served as a Umatilla
city councilor from 1989-
1990 and mayor from 1991
to 2004. Hash Park in Mc-
Nary is named after him.
After suffering a stroke,
he is in Regency Hermiston
Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center. His family celebrated
his birthday with him over
the weekend.
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