A4 • Friday, May 13, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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An American hero continues to serve others in Seaside
ou Neubecker ﬂ ew on Marine One
with two presidents, Jimmy Carter
and Ronald Reagan. As ﬂ ight crew
and hydraulics instructor, he held a key role
in the U.S. Marine Corps squadron respon-
sible for the transportation of the president,
vice president and top government oﬃ cials.
“I was the man saluting them when they
walked oﬀ ,” he said.
L
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Neubecker, 73, grew up in San Francisco.
His grandfather served in the army in Italy
and his father served in World War II in the
U.S. Navy.
On his 18th birthday, he got his draft
notice. “I said, ‘Hell no, I’m not going into
the Army,” he remembered.
Instead, he went down to the Marine
recruiter, signed the paperwork and headed
to boot camp in June 1967.
Attending aviation school, he became a
hydraulics instructional mechanic in Marine
helicopters.
He was sent to Camp Pendleton in Octo-
ber 1968 and then to Vietnam. Only 35 days
later, ﬂ ying an operation as a machine-gun-
ner, the helicopter he was ﬂ ying in got shot
down.
“We were supposedly in friendly terri-
tory,” he recalled. “We were taking live ﬁ re
from the tree line. And it hit, from what I
understand, the main transmission and we
auto-rotated down. And I don’t remember
too much after that. I was in the hospital for
18 months.”
Neubecker was evacuated from Vietnam
for medical care back in the United States.
One of his vertebrae disks was cracked.
He had no feeling in his legs and he was
unable to walk.
Neubecker doesn’t remember what hap-
pened, but he got sent home and received
R.J. Marx
Lou Neubecker, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is busy with volunteer work in the community.
a medal for valor in helping others in the
chopper to safety.
“They were all ﬁ ne — hearsay, because
I don’t remember — supposedly I pulled
everybody out,” he said.
Neubecker won’t talk about the speciﬁ cs
of his medals, but this was only one of many
he received over his military career, includ-
ing a Purple Heart, which is awarded to sol-
diers who are wounded or killed .
After a period of physical rehabilitation,
he had the chance to take a medical dis-
charge but opted to remain in the service.
He was stationed at Marine Corps Air Sta-
tion El Toro before being sent back to Viet-
nam — this time assigned not to helicopters
but to ﬁ xed-wing aircraft as a hydraulics and
structural system specialist.
“There were ﬁ ve of us that were helicop-
ter guys,” Neubecker said. ”They called us
the ‘Sergeants Five’ because all ﬁ ve of us
were helicopter guys. We didn’t have a clue
what we were doing on the ﬁ xed wing.”
He was stationed in the South Vietnamese
stronghold of Da Nang. He remembers the
day when 34 bombs weighing 500 pounds
each were dropped mistakenly by ﬁ ve
American warplanes on the giant American
and South Vietnamese air base at Da Nang
in January 1973.
“First night we were there, they put us
up in the barracks. We were walking in to
the ﬂ ight line the next morning and all of a
sudden it was like watching a World War II
movie. We’re hearing this whistle. ‘What
the hell is that?’ And all of a sudden bombs
started hitting,” he said. “The Air Force was
leading a raid on North Vietnam and they
missed. They were bombing the base in Da
Nang.”
Neubecker returned to the U.S. later that
year and was stationed at the Marine Corps
Air Station in New River, North Carolina.
He later served aboard the USS Guadalcanal
during the evacuation of Lebanon in 1976.
“All hell broke loose over there,” he said. “I
was lucky there.”
Neubecker ﬁ nally left the military with a
medical discharge in December 1986.
“I retired on a Friday and Monday I went
up to McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Long
Beach, California,” he said. “I ﬁ lled out a
job application and got hired on the spot.”
His ﬁ rst marriage, which produced daugh-
ters Sammantha Ann and Jennifer Rebecca,
ended in 1983.
He met his second wife, Beverly, through
the two girls, who were friends with her
daughter, Ursula. Neubecker and Beverly
married in 1986, and now have 36 years
together.
With friends on the North Coast and much
of his work in Seattle, the family moved to
Seaside.
“It’s not the hustle and bustle that you
get down in LA, San Francisco or D.C.,” he
said. “It’s getting big now. But when we ﬁ rst
moved up here, the people were so friendly.
People don’t care where you came from.
They greeted us with open arms.”
Neubecker immediately began a path of
civic involvement, joining the board of the
Bob Chisholm Community Center and the
Planning Commission, where he has served
for ﬁ ve years.
“We’re Catholics and we go to Our Lady
of Victory Catholic Church,” he said. “On
the ﬁ rst day we were there, people came up
to us. ‘Are you guys new to the parish or are
you just visiting?’ ‘No, we’re new.’ It was
awesome. We really ﬁ t right in.”
He volunteers with the church, the Marine
Corps League, based in Warrenton, and is an
adjutant with the American Legion Post 99.
As a member of the Planning Commis-
sion, he said he sees aﬀ ordable housing
and homelessness as two of the city’s top
problems.
Nevertheless, he sees Seaside as essen-
tially a friendly, small town. He sees posi-
tive changes ahead.
“I think it is going to get bigger and bet-
ter, bigger and better, bigger and better,” he
said.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Volunteer seeks yes vote
for Gearhart ﬁ re bond
As a 15-year veteran of the ﬁ re service in
Arizona before moving here, I will be vot-
ing “yes” for the Gearhart ﬁ re bond.
I have carefully reviewed the arguments
against. They all show a dangerous lack of
understanding of the physical needs and
realities of emergency ﬁ re and police oper-
ations, as well as the realities of the impact
a natural disaster will have on our local
communities.
Complaining about the location and its
distance from downtown ignores Gearhart’s
growth and where that growth will continue
to happen. It says you think the lives and
property of Gin Ridge residents and down-
town are more important than those living
oﬀ Highlands Lane or the streets west of
U.S. Highway 101.
Most important, it ignores the primary
factor that impacts response times: where
the majority of the volunteer force cur-
rently lives and will continue to be drawn
from in the future. Spoiler alert — it ain’t
“downtown.”
Opponents claim to “support” emer-
gency service personnel; but, all they can
see is the cost while,
ironically, their continued opposition
keeps driving the cost up. A “no” vote will
cause taxpayers to pay as much or more to
get less in the future and has the potential to
expose the city to civil liabilities.
More important, they are denying Gear-
hart ﬁ re and police the basic necessities
they currently need to safely and eﬀ ectively
do their jobs. Nothing in the ﬁ re bond pro-
posal is extravagant or unnecessary.
A “yes” vote is the ﬁ scally smart thing
to do.
Bill Graﬃ us
Gearhart
Firehouse improvement
long overdue
I have been a full-time resident of Gear-
hart since 2015. One drive through this hid-
den coastal gem told me this was where I
wanted to live. When it comes to “improv-
ing” Gearhart there is not much to improve,
in my opinion. Walk into the Gearhart Fire
Station — it becomes obvious improvement
is long overdue.
A position with Life Flight Network as a
ﬂ ight nurse brought me to Gearhart. I have
worked alongside these ﬁ rst responders and
ﬁ re personnel. They do a magniﬁ cent job.
They save lives. They are our local heroes.
They need and deserve support from the
community they selﬂ essly serve.
Upon ﬁ rst hearing the $14.5M bond cost
I too was shellshocked. I initially bought
into the plethora of negative misinformation
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
out there. I stopped by the ﬁ re station one
day and took a tour. I then realized I needed
to educate myself with facts beyond the
social media wars.
Some complain we are not being told the
whole story. The whole story is out there,
and I urge anyone to seek out the facts.
Being ﬁ scally conservative, I feel
it’s important how we spend tax dollars.
They’re not asking for a new golf course.
They are asking for a place to train and
learn, and to serve their community.
I urge you to be open minded and get the
facts from reliable sources. Attend a Gear-
hart Volunteer Fire Department open house
and get to know the situation ﬁ rsthand. I
urge you to vote “yes” on Measure 4-213.
Trudy Duisen
Gearhart
Yes or no?
Yes means a modern, eﬃ cient and earth-
quake-resistant Gearhart ﬁ re/police station.
Yes means placing critical infrastructure on
high ground out of the likely tsunami inun-
dation zone. Yes means adequate space for
equipment storage and ﬁ rst-responder train-
ing. Yes means decontamination areas and
adequate changing facilities in compliance
with today’s standards. Yes means secure
storage for police evidence and private
spaces for victims reporting crimes.
Yes means providing basic infrastructure
and tools for our ﬁ re and police to do their
jobs. Yes means supporting our volunteer
ﬁ reﬁ ghters who sacriﬁ ce time with their
families to respond to our emergencies. Yes
means safety and security for residents and
visitors. Yes means coming together as a
community to do good things for the good
of Gearhart.
What does no oﬀ er? Nothing. Join me
in voting yes on Measure 4-213 for a new
Gearhart ﬁ re/police station.
Bebe Michel
Gearhart
Highlands Lane oﬀ ers
safer option
Gearhart Ordinance 924, the tsunami
overlay zone ordinance, was signed into
city law in August 2019. It prohibits build-
ing critical infrastructure, such as ﬁ re
and police stations, schools, hospitals, in
the inundation zone as long as there is an
option available that is a safer, better loca-
tion. That safer, better location is at High-
lands Lane.
Holding on to hope of building at the
current location does nothing but work at
delaying an inevitable process. And that
process is building at Highlands Lane.
Delays only lead to increased costs, as evi-
denced by the lawsuit brought against the
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeﬀ TerHar
City last fall, challenging the wording of the
bond at that time. The judge dismissed each
point challenged. That law suit cost all of
us, the taxpayers, a minimum of $600,000
and up to $1.5 million in increased costs
due to time lost. What a blow this senseless
lawsuit has been to taxpayers!
Let’s stay focused on building a mod-
ern new ﬁ re/police station at the viable and
sensible Highlands site. Let’s also consider
how the existing site can be utilized to cre-
ate a more vibrant downtown. We can have
the best of both worlds. Downtown activ-
ity, but a resilient police and ﬁ re station that
can help us get back on our feet when disas-
ter hits.
Please join me in voting “yes” for mea-
sure 4-213.
Jeanne Mark
Gearhart
Let’s pass this bond
Recently, Lisa and I had a ﬁ re at our
home in Gearhart. We have struggled with
the loss of a secure home and feelings of
displacement. The bright side has been get-
ting to know our wonderful neighbors. It
does not matter if you have a red or a blue
sign. We are one community, and we are all
fortunate to live in Gearhart.
Our ﬁ re station is in need of replace-
ment. If you doubt this, visit the ﬁ re sta-
tion and make your assessment. Please
inform yourself of tax implications. Gear-
hart pays some of the lowest property taxes
on the north Oregon Coast. Ask your Asto-
ria and Seaside neighbors about their taxes.
You will discover you pay less, and you
will continue to pay less after this bond is
approved.
In today’s world, it is easy to be a pessi-
mist. But pessimists don’t accomplish any-
thing. I have lived in this community for
over 20 years, operate a successful local
business. Success and growth take invest-
ment. Each year we defer this critical proj-
ect its costs increase. If we do not pass this
bond, we will be voting on a signiﬁ cantly
more expensive bond in the future.
Our volunteer ﬁ re department is an
incredible asset. We can’t build a school or
a city hall and staﬀ it with volunteers. But
we can build a ﬁ re station and depend on
volunteers to come to our rescue. As a com-
munity, let’s pass this bond, build the ﬁ re
station and once again enjoy each other’s
company.
Dave Koller
Gearhart
Gearhart volunteer
ﬁ reﬁ ghters need a new station
Gearhart is changing. The North Coast
is changing. What used to be a quiet coastal
corridor has seen such growth, it still takes
my breath away.
Our population has grown, traﬃ c on
the 101 corridor has grown, and tourism
has grown. These changes bring increasing
demands to our ﬁ rst responders. We must
build a facility to respond eﬀ ectively to
these times.
The Gearhart Volunteer Fire Department
has been working out of a decaying cinder
block structure built sixty-four years ago.
The current station has served them well.
Well beyond what should have been its
expiration date. Now is the time to build for
both the present and all of our futures. Our
Gearhart volunteer ﬁ reﬁ ghters need a new
station.
We must stop procrastinating. Costs con-
tinue escalating. In 2006 a bond measure
for a new station failed. Its cost? $3.75 mil-
lion. Labor and supply costs continue rising
every year. What will the cost be if Measure
4-213 fails?
In the last sixty plus years we have
become aware of greater earthquake and
tsunami threats. Higher ground and a new
station will help mitigate and manage these
realities. The proposed Highlands Lane
location is at 70 feet in elevation. This is
above even a worst-case scenario. Our cur-
rent station at 27 feet might just be under-
water with even a medium event.
For a safer future we must build a new
ﬁ re station. Let’s quit kicking the can down
the road.
Vote yes on Measure 4-213 for a safer
tomorrow.
David Russell
Gearhart
Thompson deserves your
vote for county commission
It’s time again to vote I have some
thoughts on the upcoming election for Dis-
trict 5 on the Clatsop County Commis-
sion. as I consider my choices and what my
experience has been with the county staﬀ
and management.
I must say that in all my experiences,
while not always to my preferred outcome,
I have been treated with respect and cour-
tesy, which I believe to be a direct reﬂ ection
of the leadership.
When I have called to talk to my elected
oﬃ cial Lianne Thompson she’s always
responded and helped direct me to the
appropriate staﬀ for my problems. Based
on her past commitment to the county for
excellent government and her institutional
knowledge of how best to make our gov-
ernment work for balance for all, I would
encourage your support for her on the May
17 ballot.
Michael Kapigian
Elsie/Vinemaple
Seaside Signal
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