A4 • Friday, July 16, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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War experiences, forestry work inspire Palmrose novel
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
At 75, Ken Palmrose, who was born and
raised in Seaside, is the author of “Out of
the Blue: A Young Man’s Journey from the
Palms of Vietnam to the Pine Forests of the
West.”
Palmrose spoke with the Signal about his
life in Seaside, writing and Vietnam.
‘Drafted into the Army and a 14- month
veteran of the Vietnam War, he was glad
to begin his career in a western national
forest, but the dangers that he will face
far surpass anything he has seen. Ben’s
story is a journey, but also a reminder of
the nightmares and daydreams of being
in a war zone; some bad, some good, but
memories that are forever lurking in the
mind’s shadows.’
Ken Palmrose
“Out of the Blue”
Q: Tell us about your time in Seaside.
Were you raised here?
A: My family has lived in the area since
the early 1900s with Palmrose Dairy owned
by my Finnish-immigrant grandmother and
helped run by my father. My father and his
brothers were well known athletes in their
youth.
Our family was all over the Seaside/Asto-
ria area. My parents lived in the area until
their deaths and I still have one brother,
Ernie, in the area. My family, children and
grandchildren, have visited Seaside family
and friends quite often over the past 50 some
years since I left.
I was born and raised in Seaside and
graduated from Seaside Union High School
in 1963 and then went to Clatsop Commu-
nity College for an associate’s degree in for-
estry technology. I went to work for the U.S.
Forest Service beginning in Eastern Oregon
as a forestry aide, ending up 36 years later as
the regional media offi cer for the U.S. Forest
Service southwestern region.
Q: Have you always been a writer?
A: This is from my publisher’s publicity
page: “Ken Palmrose, for many years during
his Forest Service career, was a writer/edi-
tor and later was a contributing editor for
an extensive Arizona wildfi re story titled
‘The Monster Reared His Ugly Head.’ He
has written numerous news and web stories,
special feature articles and additionally is an
accomplished photographer having traveled
to over 25 countries around the world.”
So in one form or another the answer is
yes, I have always been interested in writing.
I was a writer/editor for six years, lots of for-
est plan-type documents. I was also a public
aff airs offi cer for 20 years.
Q: Did you serve in Vietnam, like the
character in your book?
A: I was drafted within fi ve months of
starting my new career with the Forest Ser-
vice and ended up after basic training going
to military intelligence school at Fort Hola-
bird, Maryland. Seems like they noticed I
received good grades in photogrammetry
at Clatsop Community College and I ended
up being trained as an imagery interpreter,
much of which I already studied.
I was assigned to the 519th MI battalion
and we worked in an air-conditioned, secure
building near Tan Son Nhut Air Base but
were bussed every day from 6 kilometers
southeast to our compound, which then was
out at the far edge of the furthest reaches of
rural Saigon.
We looked for the enemy on photos and
infrared imagery and plotted bombing runs,
Author Ken Palmrose
B-52 missions, napalm strikes, you name it
and other airstrikes. We also did tactical ter-
rain studies to help our troops on the ground
fi nd ways to get safely cross country either
on foot or in tracked vehicles.
I watched the air base get hit during the
Tet off ensive, while a few of us were sent
up on the roof of the building for guard duty
as the air base perimeter was only a couple
hundred meters distant and was under con-
stant attack in all areas. The May off ensive
— Ho Chi Minh’s birthday — was worse
for us as much of the entire areas around our
barracks and motor pool were destroyed, but
for some reason, they didn’t hit our com-
pound, which was only a few acres in size
and held over 1,000 people.
Basically, it was a tale of two tours, seven
months before Tet, we could go into Saigon
and see the sights, eat and buy local, and
seven months after Tet, the war was with us
everyday from then on. I arrived in June of
1967 and left in August of 1968, 14 months.
Q: What’s the origin/concept of this
book?
Astoria police offi cer remembered
as ‘over-the-top friendly guy’
Whisler remembered
in Seaside, Gearhart
Seaside Signal
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
An Astoria police offi cer
died at home last Friday.
Sam Whisler, 26, had
worked the graveyard shift
and returned home early in
the morning. His wife found
him dead in the home later
that day.
Astoria Police Chief
Geoff Spalding said it
appears Whisler died of nat-
ural causes, though the exact
reason is still unknown.
Family members say Whis-
ler suff ered from seizures as
a child.
“It’s just a tremendous
loss for the department
and his family, and his law
enforcement family,” Spal-
ding said.
Whisler was an “over-
the-top friendly guy,” the
police chief said.
The youngest in a large
family, Whisler was known
for both his genuine kind-
ness but also the pranks
he liked to pull on older
siblings.
From an early age, he
felt drawn to a life in ser-
vice. His father, Mark Whis-
ler, worked for the Clatsop
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce for
decades, assigned for some
time to the county’s narcot-
ics task force. Others in his
extended family had served
in law enforcement and the
military.
When he was 13, Sam
Whisler started volunteer-
ing with the sheriff ’s offi ce
search and rescue team.
He became an enforce-
ment cadet with the sheriff ’s
offi ce in 2013 and a reserve
deputy in 2017. He joined
the Astoria Police Depart-
ment in January 2020. He
was also a volunteer with
the Gearhart Fire Depart-
ment and a lifeguard and res-
cue swimmer for the Seaside
Fire Department.
“We always knew he
would wear a uniform,” his
mother, Lisa Whisler, said.
Sam Whisler, shown with his family, died at his home last week.
“We just weren’t sure which
one.”
Whisler himself didn’t
seem to know. He thought
about pursuing a career as a
medic, fi refi ghter or police
offi cer.
He told his father, “I want
to help people. I’m just not
sure how yet.”
When the Astoria Police
Department hired him,
everything seemed to have
come together for him: wife,
kids, home and career.
“His life, in his eyes, was
complete,” said Amanda
Laird, his sister. “He had
everything he wanted.”
Whisler and his father
had brief conversations
nearly every day while he
was driving to work. They
would talk about the pre-
vious day, the calls he had
responded to as a police offi -
cer. It had become a conver-
sation between peers.
With the hiring of Whis-
ler and two other offi cers in
the past year and a half, the
Astoria Police Department
was on its way to being at
full strength with 17 sworn
offi cers for the fi rst time in
years.
The department had lost
offi cers to retirement or other
job opportunities. All posi-
tive, normal things, Spald-
ing said, but he and Deputy
Chief Eric Halverson had
just been talking about how
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Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
nice it was to be up to the
department’s full strength.
Whisler was out of train-
ing and patrolling on his
own by the end of last year.
Though Whisler’s time with
the department was brief, the
community already loved
him and his upbeat, positive
personality, Spalding said.
A GoFundMe campaign
Laird organized to help sup-
port Whisler’s wife, Chris-
tin, and the couple’s children
hit its goal of $10,000 within
hours of launching. The
campaign had raised just
over $20,000 as of Monday.
Christin called “Sammy”
— her nickname for her hus-
band — the most compas-
sionate, nonjudgmental per-
son she had ever met. She
felt she could tell him any-
thing, even her darkest
thoughts.
“I knew I would just
receive love,” she said. “No
matter what I was saying, I
just got back love.”
They would have been
married two years this
August and had one daugh-
ter together. Whisler was
also a devoted and engaged
stepfather for Christin’s
5-year-old son.
In the days since Sam
Whisler died, Christin has
considered if she wants
to move away. She said
she’s already dismissed the
thought.
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
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Carl Earl
A: Originally I wanted to write a screen-
play, nonfi ction, but I decided I didn’t, at that
time, have the patience. So, I started writ-
ing a novel based upon a crew of young men
from all over the U.S. coming together in
one of the most rural forest settings in the
West.
As I was about halfway through, I started
remembering things about my time in Viet-
nam and thought, why not fi ctionalize those
as memories in the main character? So I
rewrote the whole thing and that’s how it
ended up. Fiction based loosely on some real
events.
Q: Will you be back in the area in the
near future?
A: I plan on being back in Seaside in
September, as it is my understanding there
is going to be some type of formal ceremony
for the Vietnam veterans monument at the
Cove.
“To leave is to leave his
memory,” she said.
She wants to stay in the
home they shared, take a
shower in the same bath-
room, sleep in the same
bedroom.
The loss is fresh. Many of
the memories Sam Whisler’s
family reach for are more
sensory than story — simple,
even mundane moments, as
if his life has only paused.
Lisa Whisler thinks of his
smiles, his hugs, his face,
how he always loved to be
home and around his family.
“Let’s stay home sweet
home,” he used to tell her
when he was very young.
She sees his eyes when
she looks at his 2-year-old
daughter’s face.
Christin thinks about
the quiet weekends spent
at home, just her and Sam
and the kids hanging out in
the backyard, doing nothing
together.
“We could be sitting
nowhere with nothing going
on,” she said, “and we’d just
have the best time.”
The memory Mark Whis-
ler keeps thinking about is
being at his son’s house and
watching Sam walk down a
hallway. He’s watching Sam
at an angle from behind —
“just looking at this young
man, big and burly and
friendly as can be” — as he’s
walking away from him.
The Gearhart Fire
Department mourned the
sudden passing of Asto-
ria police offi cer Sam
Whisler.
Whisler served as a
fi refi ghter with Gearhart
Fire from 2011 until 2019
including three years as
the department’s intern.
“He left to pursue
his dream of becoming
a law enforcement offi -
cer,” fi refi ghters wrote in
a statement. “His dream
became a reality in 2020
when he joined the
Astoria Police Depart-
ment as a full-time offi -
cer. Sam had a lasting
impact on so many peo-
ple affi liated with Gear-
hart Fire, and he will be
greatly missed.”
Whisler was remem-
bered
at
Monday’s
Seaside City Council
meeting.
“I know Sam’s great-
est ambition was to be
a police offi cer, like his
dad, which makes the
pain for him even more
severe,” Mayor Jay Bar-
ber said. “And so our
thoughts and prayers are
with that family. Such an
outstanding young man
and life cut short.”
Seaside Fire Chief
Joey Daniels expressed
condolences to the fam-
ily. “Sam was also a life-
guard for several years
and I worked with him,
Gearhart Fire, so it’s per-
sonal. And I grew up
with the family. We wish
them the best.”
Shara Ford, David Rankin and Sam Whisler with
Seaside’s beach rescue vehicle in 2016. The team saved
a mother and daughter from rough surf.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest meeting information and
attendance guidelines.
TUESDAY, JULY 19
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, JULY 20
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work session, 989
Broadway.
Seaside Signal
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