United Veterans honor WWII National Guardsmen

The roster of Flathead Valley National Guardsmen who served in Company F of the 163rd Montana Infantry Regiment during World War II reads like a “who’s who” of the Flathead Valley’s business owners and civic leaders of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

The late local author Carle O’Neil wrote an entire book about these National Guardsmen titled “Men Do Your Duty,” which devoted entire chapters to many recognizable Flathead names — Ed Hula, Richard Walsh, Norman Borgen, Roy Duff, Bill DeVall and many others.

Company F of the 163rd Montana Infantry Regiment is in the news once again because a new flag will be raised in memory of Company F during a special flag ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Memorial Day in the veterans section of the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell.

Every year on Memorial Day the United Veterans of Flathead Valley gather at the cemetery to dedicate a United States flag to honor the memory of a local veteran, and to retire the flag flown over the past year to honor last year’s chosen honoree.

The special flag has flown the past year to honor Staff Sgt. Robert A. Hatlen, who was inducted into the Army’s 104th Infantry Division known as the Timberwolves. His son will receive Hatlen’s retired flag.

Company F has a storied past, according to O’Neil’s book. The company, in what became the Second Montana Infantry, was activated in 1910 in Kalispell, where there already was a Company H.

“This made Kalispell unique in the nation as the only city supporting two companies at the same time,” O’Neil wrote. (Company H was subsequently reorganized, first in Polson and then in Billings.)

“Company F gained surprising acclaim as a ‘shooting company’ because of the excellent marksmanship of some of its members who, remarkably, won the National Defense Trophy in 1913 and the John J. McGuinness Trophy for field firing in 1915, even with outmoded weapons,” O’Neil noted.

The Daily Inter Lake wrote about Company F on many occasions, keeping the public apprised of the young men’s service. The Sept. 23, 1940, Inter Lake told of the company’s departure with an article titled “Big Crowd Present to Bid Farewell to The National Guard,” saying how the Great Northern depot park was “jammed with hundreds” who gathered to bid farewell to the members of Company F.

In December 1942 Kalispell’s Company F, joined by a Whitefish Medical Detachment of men from Flathead and Lincoln counties, were alerted for World War II action in the South Pacific. They joined the U.S. Army’s 41st Infantry Division in Australia to attack Papua, New Guinea.

“Young men of the Flathead and their compatriots were suddenly immersed in real warfare, vastly, shockingly different from the ‘make-believe’ exercises of many preparatory months,” O’Neil wrote. “No matter how rigorous the training had been, the conditions which GIs now faced were a hell which could never have been fully anticipated. Although fresh and in superb physical condition, they were surrounded overnight by hostile jungle, extreme weather conditions, hordes of insects, debilitating disease, with insufficient ammunition, faltering air support and poor, sometimes nonexistent supply lines.”

In the epilogue of “Men Do Your Duty,” O’Neil noted how no one in Company F “labeled himself courageous.

“Not one man spoke of, bragged of his own bravery or even said much about decorations received in honor for the performance of notable acts,” O’Neil pointed out in his 2001 book. “Unwittingly, the stories told here demonstrate that courage is a bedrock characteristic of successful fighting personnel ... What servicemen, and servicewomen have rendered to their country in ‘doing their duty,’ not only in World War II, but earlier in World War I and then Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf has often been valorous beyond description.”

Conrad Cemetery Sexton James Korn will note during his remarks at the flag ceremony that those members of Company F who made the supreme sacrifice were Harry L. Billsborough, Aaron K. Dickey, Kenneth E. Felix, Leo R. Johnson, Ellis W. Olsen, Harold E. Pulliam, Rex S. Ritter, Harold W. Roush, Delbert Tilton, Eldred W. Madden and Charles H. Rogers.

Six of those men are interred in Flathead cemeteries, including five at Conrad Cemetery.

“Countless more were wounded,” Korn noted, “and virtually all suffered serious and prolonged illness from the jungle growth and climate, insects, disease, filth, inadequate food, and from the witness of unthinkable sights, destruction and death.”

News Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.