Bigfork High School honors vets

Heroes were the theme of the day at Bigfork High School on Thursday.

The local heroes were Lawrence Kotecki, Don Torgerson, Larry Roedel, William "Lee" Searcy and Kenneth Caverly.

Each man's military service was honored with dignity and distinction at a Veterans' Day assembly researched, prepared and presented by Bigfork juniors through Mary Sullivan's English 3 class.

Each of these men attended on Thursday because they could.

Matthew Edward Saltz was honored because he could not.

In his stead came his parents, Richard and Cathy Saltz. The Bigfork family will observe the first anniversary of their son's death on Dec. 22.

Army 1st Lt. Saltz, posthumously promoted to captain, was the first Montana casualty of the Iraq war. Killed when a roadside bomb ripped through his Humvee as the 1st Armored Division rolled into Baghdad, the 27-year-old soldier fell along with another soldier and an Iraqi translator. Two more were wounded.

"He had made peace with mortality," Jamie Morgenstern told the gymnasium full of students, veterans and community members gathered for the Nov. 11 Veterans Day observance.

Saltz and his companions were well-armed, not because they had guns and grenades, but because they believed they were making a difference.

"We didn't need anyone to believe in us, because we believed in ourselves," the 1995 Bigfork graduate had said. "That's what makes the difference between success and failure."

That statement was part of a video sketch of Saltz's life and service, produced by Bigfork juniors for the assembly.

The video began with a baby photo, took him though Little League and high school football, showed the young man with his dog and in U.S. Forest Service firefighter yellow. He was proud in his fatigues with his fellow soldiers, with his family and solo.

All these and more images, coordinated to the song "Remember Me," faded out on a close-up of Saltz, smiling in his dress uniform.

Afterward, Dick and Cathy Saltz received a handsomely framed work of art: Bigfork senior Kristin Kuhn's beautiful pencil sketch of their son as a soldier.

Cathy Saltz was honored along with LaDon Hardman as Gold Star Mothers, who have lost a son while they were fighting for their country.

Hardman was there with her husband, Kenneth, who was honored himself as a Navy veteran of World War II. Hardman knows exactly how old his son, Danial, an Air Force C-147 crew chief, was when he was killed Dec. 28, 1974, in Vietnam - 25 years, 5 months, 13 days.

Remembrances such as these are important to freedom-loving people.

"We have a lot of differences of opinion," especially though the recent presidential election, Bigfork Principal Thom Peck told Thursday's crowd. "But today we are all of one opinion. We are here to honor America and America's veterans."

Sullivan piloted her classes through their work, a part of the Montana Heritage Project that is archiving the state's human history. She noted a common denominator in interviews with this year's five veterans who cooperated with the students compiling their oral histories.

"None of them talked of war in heroic terms," she said. "None of them called themselves heroes."

They were scared, hurt, cold, lonely soldiers, Sullivan said - and aching for the families back home, who themselves were torn apart by divisive wars.

The student-written oral histories gave glimpses into the lives of those soldiers, some as many as five or six decades later.

Kotecki, in the Navy during World War II, said "we weren't there for a medal," Allie Wilson read in his oral history. "We were just doing our job."

Torgerson's history, read by his grandson Erik Torgerson, brought out the front-line, hand-to-hand horrors seldom glimpsed by non-military combatants.

"We had been told (as we grew up) to be good, then we were sent in to kill the enemy," said the Marine Corps and Navy veteran who enlisted in 1942. "It's kind of rough when you're just - I was only 21 - and that's your purpose, to go in and kill people."

Roedel was a Navy man in Korea, his son, Nathan Thompson told the assembly. He liked his job, but found the greatest satisfaction in "bringing boys home who had served their tour of duty."

Searcy, a Marine in Vietnam, took a shell in the arm early in his own tour of duty. His generation came home to something new for veterans, jeers instead of cheers.

"There's a lot wrong with this country," he told the oral history compilers, "but it's still the most glorious place on earth."

Caverly still is serving his country, as an active duty National Guardsman in Iraq. Soon after arriving, his supply unit was attacked and forced to respond.

"I hope I never have to do something like that again," he told the students. "That's hard to take, watching someone die."

He added a sentiment bound by neither time, nationality nor locale.

"I sure hope the tour goes fast," Caverly said in his history. "I'm ready to come home."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com