[Music] in Duthman minnesota the heart of America's Northland we are at the intersection of what it means to serve in the military and what it means to be a Northlander how we remember the veterans who fought for our country says a lot about who we are as soon as this armory was open there was active deployment protecting not only our state but the nation that was back in 1916 that tradition in Minnesota of always being ready to serve no matter the hardships is a proud legacy oh yeah it's not going to be what you expect there's a a lot of things that happen that uh probably shouldn't talk about ever again as we remember those who lost their lives we pray that you would surround families and friends and all who grieve we have to do it and it has to be done minnesota has a a pretty rich history of service in the US Army specifically um you know dating back to the Civil War when uh Abraham Lincoln called for soldiers so the first Minnesota was uh the beginning of major military activities the drummer boy the Civil War his memory and that his legacy lives on when stitched together there are key events that create the broad and complex tapestry that is American military history code talkers they were still held in secrecy they had a top security clearance they could be flying this way look over their right shoulder lock onto a target taliban was literally right on the other side of the gate the tragic events of September 11th our own 148th Air National Guard Bulldogs were immediately called into action understanding these events from a Northland perspective helps bring context to how our region fits into our nation my first deployment was in uh Iraq uh Kabul Afghanistan during the collapse of the the Afghan government i took the bullets out of my gun and for the rest of my 397 days in war and how our service members define us but somebody's got to defend the country might have to go over this a couple times stand by stand by 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of America's founding as we celebrate this milestone it's incumbent on us to take a look back at the history of Northlanders in the military so that their stories do not get lost in time this one is stubborn these grassroots just go deep yeah we've done I don't know if she's told you how much we've done up there basically weld that whole top which is the uh the war memorial [Music] stones i was accepted to the Daughters of the American Revolution and each new member has to do a community project the project that my team and I are working on is cleaning the markers that are of veterans civil War Spanish American War World War I and there are a few World War II burials in this section as well five more years and these people aren't going to know what these stones are they'll just disappear in order for me to uh belong to the D I had to prove a lineal disscent from a soldier in the revolutionary war or a supporter of the revolutionary war so and any woman who joins the D has to prove that lineage every generation from from herself up to the patriot you have to prove you know the dates of birth dates of death marriage dates and um so it's it's pretty rigorous but once it gets done there's this great database that the D has of of revolutionary patriots and people who desent from them [Music] clearly the immigrants who've come to this area are independent bunch and they have to be can you imagine can you imagine like my ancestor got on a ship when he was 15 by himself from Germany sailed across the ocean went to Pennsylvania was in the Revolutionary War started a family oh my gosh how do you even do that when you're 15 it's fun for me to see what these people did where they lived you know their kids family and not necessarily a lot of these people were just regular people just like you and me yeah and I said to one of the groundskeepers "Three of these guys seem to be missing i don't you know where are they?"

And they said "Well Kathleen you're standing on them."

I went "Okie right."

I didn't realize where I was standing so I can show you where the blank spots are two missing here and one missing there one from World War I and one and two from the Civil War i don't like blank spots in research in history i don't like not knowing and so I began searching and I went to um Congressman Strawber's office to ask for some help we got one of the monuments here it's in the It'll be installed this fall kathleen isn't the only one we've met on the journey of making this documentary working to fill in the gaps of our local military history every woman who was alive during World War II did something right but if you watch the movies and read most of the books about World War II they're not even mentioned women were in all of the major um battles throughout the war mi women from Minnesota i never would have imagined being from Minnesota myself that there were Minnesota women who became spies further efforts to fill in the gaps in American history can be seen at the Duth International Airport here sits a monument to Joseph Goomemer a Tuskegee airman who flew 68 missions in World War II along with all Tuskegee airmen he was recognized in 2007 with the Congressional Gold Medal the highest award given by Congress and the effort to recognize the contributions of all service members is ongoing oh there's huge gaps in American history mostly about our indigenous history of this country i am honored to be part of an ethnic group who has the highest rate of service than any other racial demographic america can do a lot more uh to find out its history and to honor and even put the effort out to learn about things like our code talkers or that they're even we're local ones hey Co-t talkers were Native Americans who were recruited during World War I and World War II to use our traditional languages as codes to disrupt uh the Japanese and other enemies of the country from being able to understand what the correspondence were during the wars one day I got a call from a lady in Washington DC by the name of Betty Bird Song and she called and she said that she had been calling around the country looking for this one fellow who was uh a co-t talker and they couldn't find him this fellow by the name of Lex Porter and I say to myself I know Lex Porter he's he's a family friend of mine and his sons are some of my closest friends unfortunately at the time uh Lex had passed away he never told his family even that he was a code talker the US Senate honored uh the families or the living code talkers they were they were all invited out to the US Senate and Lex's uh family went out there and as honoring the tribes who had code talkers each tribe was created a specific medal honoring the code talker from that tribe they weren't recognized for their service because they were still held in secrecy they were code talkers had to uh swear allegiance and that they would not um reveal that they were code talkers and that was why they were able to use code talkers again because of the secrecies that they were all sworn and that held true even all the way to his family to the end of Rex Lex's life all that they ever said he ever said was that "Oh I was a radio man."

And so they were quite stunned and quite honored to find out all the effort that their father had and husband had put into being in the service for this country a question was answered for not only the family but for this country i grew up in South St paul i spent my weekends on the reservation but growing up I was called names and beat up and I went to a a white school i was the only Native American so I was very happy when I joined the military because there was no discrimination there were people of all races that was so such a relief it was so welcoming my mother uh was from the FondeLac reservation and she had to get her parents' permission to enlist in the military and it was the first time she had ever taken a train ride and um you know when she got down south they had signs you know um colored only and um for the restrooms and stuff and she didn't know you know which one to go in so she just stayed on the train you know because there was a lot of racism then but she was stationed in Okinawa but it was a very positive experience for her and she encouraged all of us all my brothers and sisters there were five of us and we all went in the army i enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1969 i did my training at boot camp in MCRD San Diego and they used to call that anybody that went to boot camp in the in the West Coast were Hollywood Marines i was in Vietnam the 1970 through 1971 as a field radio operator which was a pretty drastic position to be in in Vietnam of course the enemy would always try to knock off the radio man and silence the radio and lose control so it uh as a matter of fact a day before graduating boot camp we had our drill instructor give us our MOS which is military occupational specialty and he called my name and he said "Danielson you're going to be 2531 which is code for field radio operator."

And he said "You're the first one to get shot."

So that was kind of disheartening to hear that but um thankfully I served my time in Vietnam and and I survived and and came back unscathed so to speak um I can remember in the fourth grade my teacher Miss Lumblad asked all our students in my in the fourth grade class what they wanted to do when they grew up and we all got one at a time up in front of the class and we expressed what our ambitions were and when I it was my turn to talk and I got up in front of the class and I said "I want to join the service i want to be a police officer and I want to get married."

And when I said I want to get married the whole class erupted because they had no never heard of the young guy like that just wanting to get married and that was one of my goals so and I I uh I reached all my goals i joined in 1978 i was active duty through 1981 and then I did 8 years active army reserve and I was in the C which is the criminal investigative department for the soldiers um that got into some um trouble in the military so we would read the cases and uh assign military offense codes to their civilian offenses so hopefully they could spend their time in a military prison and not a civilian prison overseas i got recruited to the uh C is because they were having racial problems in Baltimore and they didn't want to um they told me they couldn't recruit black or white so they rec I was Native American they recruit a Hawaiian girl and a Mexican girl and they didn't pass their um security clearances um but I did i was 17 i had a top security clearance and uh I really enjoyed my time in the military it was the best years of my life of course I saw a lot of bad things happening in Vietnam and when I came back from my tour during my tenure as a police officer I saw a lot of tragedy consequently I was diagnosed with PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder and I've been getting counseling from the vet center in Duth it's hard to keep these feelings inside without you know it it's like a that's like festering and if you continue to hold it inside you're just going to hurt yourself that there's 13 of us all combat veterans from Vietnam and so we support each other it It's been a healing process from what we experienced [Music] i was in the Navy um I I um 1990 to 1995 right out of high school um I was stationed in Holyock Scotland on um the USS Simon Lake and then in Norfol Virginia on the USS Shannondoa i used to live in Oaklair my manager was a disabled vet he couldn't walk some days i don't want to go to the VA um even though I broke my knee or his leg or something along those lines while he was in the military and it was bothering him i don't want to go to the VA because I'm taking it away from somebody who really needs it and I was like are you kidding me this happened to you you went into the military 100% and you come out less than you go get help when you walk into a room you might not feel comfortable you don't know anybody but when you walk into a room full of veterans you feel at ease there's always somebody to talk to you have something in common with every single person in that room [Music] so I want to say thank you so much for making our military and our country a better place happy Veterans Day [Applause] [Music] we made it first of all what day is it veterans Day we're honoring veterans with a free meal how many years have you been doing this well 200 n Oh no we were doing it before then i mean they went overseas in a war zone and put their life on the line to protect our freedoms so that's why it's very very important and I did 20 and a year of that was in Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm so I seen firsthand what combat can do and I'd rather as they used to say I'd rather fight them over there than fight them here i'm Lieutenant Colonel Jesse Peterson with the Air Force every Veterans Day the students and cadetses from Air Force ROC debt 420 at UMD they hold a 24-hour veterans vigil so they started at midnight yesterday and goes all through Veterans Day till midnight tonight 30 minute shifts standing guard at the flag they do that really for two reasons one is that it's to help our cadets who are going to be future officers in the Air Force to kind of remember the legacy that they're about to enter the legacy of our veterans and the service and sacrifice that they made and the other reason they do it is because it's also a reminder to the community it's a reminder of them standing out here of all the folks that have come before [Music] us reminders of our military history can be found in many Northland communities whether in the form of a monument or in some cases a museum honoring local veterans from interactive exhibits at the renowned Richard I bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior Wisconsin all the way over to the Iron Range in Chisum mostly every town you go through they got some kind of a memorial thing for the service you never had nothing much years ago when them poor guys come back from Vietnam there was no talk at all about them but now it's different served in the army in uh 1963 in September and I got six years I put in and I got out September of 69 i was in maintenance so I did in dry truck and I worked on tanks like behind us [Music] here you know years ago there was a draft was on when we were young and um lots of people laughed about going in are you a member of the American Legion Post that installed the memorial right i'm on I've been on there about pretty close 20 years yeah it's a 247 in Chism here we were actually responsible for all this stuff out here mostly I worked on that uh helicopter there i worked on that and that big job on the corner that Navy anchor i have a lot of people that I know you know were a lot of them are gone already and a lot of old-timer I work for a lot of World War II people we had quite a few chism and it's scarce right now while certain pieces of history have been literally cemented in our regional geography we see others that are at risk of slipping away the Duth Armory was built in 1915 and as all armories of course they were a training facility for the military this specifically was for the National Guard and the Naval Militia Reserve but also a main function of an armory wherever they're located is for community use this is where the community came together for everything from musical events and it also served the community um in times of crisis and disaster in 1918 there was a fire in Moose Lake so this was a refuge location i started attending military functions at this armory at the age of 16 i a friend of mine encouraged me to join the civil air patrol that uh met one night a week down at the armory up on the top floor i was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of the uh tank battalion was that here at the armory that was here at the armory so we had we had tanks infantry reconnaissance and artillery all in one platoon you know what more could a new lieutenant hope for i had the responsibility for probably 10 or 12 other people uh I had responsibility for their welfare their training and uh and the equipment that they that they used that is a pretty significant responsibility for a young guy oh this was solid uh vehicles uh jeeps on one side and trucks on the other they were highly secure rooms we kept all of our M16s and pistols and other machine guns and M60s in those rooms and they were highly secured wow what is that about 8 in yeah there's actually both sides wow ammunition vault doors this is the actual fire after they shoot then they wheel them back in so then they can look at their target and then mark it on the wall the shells and debris would go down here during the Cold War there actually was a command center that was located here in this building under what is the main stage now that was built in 1941 underneath is another space and there was a anti-aircraft group and as the story goes this is where the maps were displayed so that operations could be monitored and their mission was to destroy enemy aircraft that would be coming in from well from the Canadian border the stage is right above us this was a very very important piece of our history simultaneously teenagers are dancing and making the floor rock when there's naval militia um training going on you know to keep us safe so that we can enjoy you know the American dream of dancing to your teen idol this armory has been around for a long time and it has gone through periods of wartime preparation for war preparation for riot control over its years has been a major part of the defense of this country uh and provided trained troops for whatever needed to be done to accomplish the mission part of the historical value of this building is to recognize all the thousands and thousands and thousands of troops that went through this facility elbert Wilson was the last living Civil War veteran who was actually from Duth and his funeral and memorial service was held right here in the Duth Armory and it was a national event um Life magazine covered it um the balcony the whole floor was um comp completely filled and then there was a procession that also went up to the the um cemetery where he's buried and um an interesting note is that he was actually a drummer boy and and uh this um historic iconic building is known now for its arts and music and so it's kind of fitting that um the drummer boy of the Civil War you know that his memory and that his legacy lives on the intent is to create a at least a room in this building uh with artifacts memorabilia uh to uh to honor the the units that have been here and what they've done as some military facilities in the Northland exist in a state of limbo others are state-of-the-art the mission of the 148th Fighter Wing in Duth is to provide mission ready pilots to succeed against current and future threats it is the largest military hub in the Northland and plays a vital role in the defense of our nation i'm Master Sergeant Jeremy Manthy i work at the 148 Fighter Wing in Duth Minnesota and air crew flight equipment anything that the pilot like that touches his body when they go and fly their mission we maintain we inspect it take it apart uh gets put onto an interval cycle we look at it fix it put it back together my dad had spent 20 years in the Air Force and so it was something I entertained to do myself i've been here for 20 years as of this November so this is known to us as a post-flight room but this is where all the pilots keep all of their uh their flying gear so in the morning they'll come in here they'll do a pre-flight some of the stuff that they fly with on a daily basis again each person has uh a helmet with an oxygen mask another piece of the puzzle is the flight harness this is actually inflatable flotation device they wear around their neck for every flight pull these two red handles it'll inflate to like four times the size if they are unconscious and these dip into the water they have what's called the universal water activation system uh cuz it works in salt or fresh these things will inflate automatically even if the handles aren't pulled so even if they're unconscious this will still inflate keep their head above water last the most common thing they fly with on a daily basis this is called the guit so what this does is this has one huge continuous bladder it wraps around both sets of their legs just like a giant pair of snow pants this gets hooked up to uh bleed air in the airplane that or air that's generated off the motor that bleeds off fills this bladder up and it squeezes their legs really really hard and it pushes all the blood from their lower extremities up into their upper extremities to their head to their heart so that they can help pull more G's effectively without having to strain so hard so they can focus on flying [Music] we call this the egress training room because this is set up to teach both pilots and people who would be going for a ride in the back seat anybody who's going to fly into an F-16 has to go through this process and that's that egress process so in here they get to practice what it's like pulling the ejection handle top gun you saw him trying to reach above his head they got rid of that system that's right here this is where you pull the ejection handle i'm 6'1 there's not a lot of room in here and this is a JHMC system stands for joint helmet and mounted queuing system so what we have here is a a display unit that projects uh airplane information onto the visor so when I fit this to a pilot I make sure that they can see the entirety of that grid uh in front of their eye and then that's where all the information would be uh located uh a pilot can use this technology uh back in the day they'd have to actually kind of like point the airplane in the general direction of where they wanted to uh target now today they can simply they could be flying this way look over their right shoulder lock onto a target and engage that target by just simply looking at it rather than having to point the whole airplane that way so here's what the parachute looks like okay 40ft table you have at one end the canopy will come out 28 ft and then you have another 28 to 14 ft of risers and straps so the parachute will start down there and it'll stretch all the way to these two bolts where we anchor to the table so we can put it under tension for inspection this is everything that goes inside of a survival kit uh we have to take all this stuff and and and pack it in there you've got these um survival module with water purification tablets all like weatherproof matches weatherproof tinder signaling mirror it is on their person this this specifically in this board is going to be attached to their butt when they hook up to that uh harness the hardest part about being in the military in my opinion is leaving my family it is the most difficult part of it because you miss out on all the moments um once I became a father it became even more difficult um I've definitely done my fair share of deployments over the years i've been to Iraq Afghanistan Kuwait now Japan um and those were a lot easier when I was younger uh it definitely doesn't get any easier as you get older but uh yeah leaving my family is very difficult because um life seems to go on pause when you leave for deployments and then when you get back you have to reintegrate into a system that's been moved on without you and so that's you know that gets to be really tricky so it's the missing them and the reintegration that makes it difficult along with securing the air above us another feature of strategic importance in our region is Lake Superior the US Coast Guard Auxiliary is the volunteer civil portion of the Coast Guard we mind our military peace and cues we wear uniforms earn ranks earn decorations but we don't fire weapons and we don't harm people our mission is to rescue people thanks to the Great Lakes Duth is the largest inland port in perhaps the world if not just the country and of course the Coast Guard presence on this lake is important because of all that shipping all that recreational boating the US Coast Guard Auxiliary was founded by Congress in 1939 to provide a pool of trained volunteers to help out the Coast Guard in its day-to-day missions when we're short of people to do one thing you call up an auxiliarist to come and fill in we can fill in on any mission the Coast Guard does except for those that involve direct military action or law enforcement actions my forte is public affairs so I get to take a lot of video of hardworking auxiliarist and active duty coasties doing the hard work while I kick back and take it easy as a public affairs officer I was on board one of the Coast Guard auxiliary safety boats the radio crackled open with a call that there was a sailboat in distress outside of the harbor the motor had broken down couldn't get the sails up they needed to be towed into port and so we went out ran a pattern found that boat lashed them with a stern toe and then brought them back through the heavy waves into the harbor and into the marina it was uh very adventurous and my job was to put down my camera and hold the line that was towing the boat so I actually get my hands dirty once in a while and for that mission we all received a team commenation a a special ribbon for a team that works efficiently together which is really quite an honor in 25 years of working as a Coast Guard auxiliarist I've had the honor of serving with young active duty people from Guam to Puerto Rico from Alaska to Florida all of them hardcore working hard great attitude they're always willing to go out and take on a tough task it makes uh a local fellow like me feel awfully proud to be a small part of that team the civilian effort to both support and honor local service members in the Northland is constant today we gather with heavy hearts to remember the tragic events of September 11th 2001 our own 148th Air National Guard Bulldogs were immediately called into action as were soldiers sailors airmen and marines from around the country active duty guard and reserve i'm proud to have taken my turn with you and like you remember the nearly 7,000 who went overseas expecting to make it home but never did we remember as well all those who returned home but were never the same every year members of the Air National Guard's 148th Fighter Wing as well as local police officers and firefighters gather at the Duth Entertainment Convention Center to honor the firefighters who scaled the Twin Towers as they burned on September 11th they do this by climbing the same number of steps that their New York City counterparts did on that fateful day dear Lord we gather together today to remember the events of September 11th 2001 and we ask that you would be present with us as we remember those who lost their lives we pray that you would surround families and friends and all who grieve or are struggling with your comforting presence it is a moving sight and a chilling reminder that for soldiers of a certain generation 9/11 is a tragedy that defined the nature of their service for one local veteran of the Iraq War her experience overseas impacted her so profoundly that she wrote a book about her revelations called Waging Peace after 9/11 I was called up to serve in the Iraq War and when I got there everything that I thought about war it was it was entirely different than I thought and so when I got there I got asked or told that I would need to be able to run over a little Iraqi child if necessary to protect my battle buddies so everything that I thought I believed in that soldiers have to make sacrifice protect one life to save a life take a life to save a life none of it really um really felt true for me and so I decided that between me God the world everybody that that really wasn't who I was that I was going to fight for life and so I would step in front of a bullet for anybody but I would never take a life and so I took the bullets out of my gun and for the rest of my 397 days in war I decided that I was going to wage peace instead of waging war but for service members like Bobby Lane who were sent during later phases of the Iraq war the experience was somewhat different in 2006 I enlisted i went to boot camp and then right after that my first deployment was in uh Iraq where we were in Iraq uh the people that we relieved and the people that relieved us both seen action but we were there at like a weird time because like it was after way after the initial invasion but uh before I even existed so we were there in like a weird lull we were just basically cops cruising around it's basically what we were doing and we'd throw candies kids and stuff you could see destroyed buildings you could see that there was action in the area at one point but when when I was I mean there was a little bit there we seen a couple seen a couple things people uh injured coming through the base we did get one person injured uh that was like a whole thing when you see something that changes you um it requires some transformation for yourself this like being who you are and I feel like I couldn't change what war would require of me and that's sort of living through a war you don't know who's going to die by lunch but I could choose who I was going to be and so disarming myself of violence felt like the only way that I was going to stay alive in the middle of a place that um that could take things from you um but there were things you could lose that were worse than losing your life i was a rear turret gunner okay mhm and uh so I' when the cars got too close to the convoy I'd shoot the flare at the car at the time we were uh we just wanted to blow things up and shoot stuff basically that's what we wanted to do um but now I'm it's probably better but I didn't know uh at the time though I was like I was uh definitely ready to go meanwhile Chance Fortune has the distinction of having served during two of the most highly politicized incidents of the early 2020s the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis and the 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan i I grew up as part of that Call of Duty generation you know video game military video game shooter generation my family my dad was in the was in the Navy my my grandpa was in the army so there was some generational influence there i all my family knew I was always going to be a soldier it was just something that I always wanted to do i was always fascinated with um fast forward now though I have more knowledge more experience the entire Minnesota National Guard that was that was states side at that time mobilized for in response to the George Floyd um the the fallout that that happened shortly after uh we were we responded to basically reinstate order in Minneapolis um and to just be a presence to dis uh dissuade any further like property damage i want to be very clear about this uh we were not activated to stop protests we were there to ensure peaceful protests took place we we stood and we let protesters protest and do what is their their right to do uh as American citizens we were there specifically to stop and dis um and um prevent violence um and you know we shortly after the Minnesota National Guard arrived in the in the city uh the it it calmed down fairly quickly we we established a pretty um pretty heavy presence we were doing a lot of humanitarian stuff dropping water off for protest uh groups and like schools and other and other people and other groups uh we were cleaning up damage done in in neighborhoods we were cleaning up some of the damage and the looting uh as a result uh so in addition to a security presence we were also we had humanitarian operations going on simultaneously i served overseas in support of operation Spartan Shield which is a part of US Central Command uh that's going to be countries like Kuwait Syria um Egypt um Jordan a lot of those uh kind of central Middle Eastern countries that we have a we maintain a military presence in uh I served uh the majority of my uh tour as a QRF uh force which is quick quick response force uh essentially we were stationed in Kuwait and we were just doing a lot of training but we were always kind of being keeping a a state of readiness for if the call ever came up for us to respond anywhere else in the region uh in August of 2021 that call came um when we got uh had to respond in uh Kabul Afghanistan during the collapse of the the Afghan government so we mobilized to support the American withdrawal from Kabool uh as well as like our allies so that was support of allies uh operation allies refuge the facility that we were guarding the Kabool International Airport was completely abandoned and prior to being abandoned had been completely overrun and uh looted and ransacked and so it had this very eerie ghost town post-apocalypse Mad Max feel to it apocalypse Now feel to it and actually that's the the Apocalypse Now is a really good comparison cuz we really kind of went off the rails there for a little bit while we were there um just cuz this the stress was so high and we were working 12 hours on 12 hours off and when we weren't working we were exploring and we were looking around um and so we were going through these abandoned buildings that had just been completely ripped out and gutted and papers burned and things thrown about uh the the post exchange had been completely looted for anything valuable we were looking for food because we weren't really getting a lot of food uh daily you know we were getting like kind of like very small portions of food that the 82nd Airborne chefs were able to make with what was left in the kitchens we found a a fleet a motorpool of Ford Rangers that had belonged to the Afghan National Army that completely collapsed and we just had this fleet of Ford Rangers that we were using to get around the cuz we otherwise we were on foot uh for the whole airport to get everywhere and it's a big airport and so we got these Ford Rangers that we were using to transport ourselves you know to and from and nobody told us to do that except for our own leadership so hey get us some vehicles like the the ANA is not using these things let's let's take them so we we made some techn what called what's called a technical truck uh we mounted our own our machine guns that we brought in our 240 Bravos we mounted them to the back of these Ford Rangers and we made our own technical trucks is what we call them uh I had an instance where I we had intercepted Afghan nationals who had snuck in through like a sewer line or some sort of an underground pipe system and we went in our trucks and we snatched them up as they were coming in and we took the searched them and then we escorted them back out because they there was a process for how we were letting people in it wasn't that people people were had to be we had to verify who they were before they could get on a plane to be flown out because we were you the purpose of the operation was to fly out Afghan nationals who had supported us during the war but the state department had a process for that but these guys weren't following the process so bag out the gate I got these guys to the front gate and it was absolute chaos uh at the front gate there was a lot of mil private military contractors working uh special operations uh who weren't in uniform forms it was very diff difficult to identify where they were from we we sent them these guys kind of packing out the front gate where there was just this massive crowd of people pushing and shoving trying to get through while the Taliban was literally right on the other side of the gate keeping people from getting in searching people because they were pulling people who who they verified had supported us they were pulling them out and executing them and um we sent these guys out and could see that they were scared to go back out sent them out they got pulled into the crowd and lost right away i don't know what happened to them as we turned to leave there was a shot that uh I did have a a shot that and you know a shot is close when it snaps and zips um so me and my buddy turned to leave and there was a shot that rang and there was a lot of shooting going on everywhere i don't necessarily believe that they were targeting me as possible because we were wearing very clear US military uniforms everybody else who was around us was wearing private military non nondescript clothing we were wearing very obvious US military uniforms um we turned to leave and there was the crack right you know by our ears like kind of between the two of us and it was only the one shot and we kind of looked at each other smiled laughed and we're like that was close and then turned and walked away the Taliban were shooting rounds into the sky and they were landing into the airport they were basically lobbing rounds into the airport so we had a few people who had rounds hit them in the helmet one of the guys I worked with had a a bullet actually go through his pant leg um but they were all like rounds that were coming down it wasn't direct fire i think my my situation was a direct fire like I we were shot someone shot between us um uh but a lot of rounds were just kind of pelleting us the whole time it was really weird that was a really unique situation even for guys who who served during that time uh in in the military um we have been kind of repositioning our focus as a military and we've been focusing more on large spectrum warfare again and and going up against what we would call a nearpeer adversary um someone who is close to us in in capability and that's kind of where we've shifted our focus um and you know that experience was it was it was something but I'm glad that I I have that experience cuz I can kind of share that with guys who who haven't gone yet you know um who haven't gone overseas to do that kind of a tour and hopefully never have to right been for 12 years i have about another eight years till I'm retired in that eight years I I'm trying to contribute as much as I can you know from what I've learned over the last 12 years of my service with Diana Bobby and Chance we see different perspectives on what it's like to come into contact with modern warfare and so the purpose of war is peace so people go to war to get peace so nobody goes to war to get more war and so they're the two sides of the same coin so my goal and my vision is that we can actually create communities where more people stay alive this year than die whether that's from uh systemic issues whether that's just gun violence whether that's because people aren't being able to sleep inside when it gets to be below zero in the winter that these are all um these aren't inevitable things they're just things that need more of us to show up for we are going to ask Duthians to look for anyone who is making a positive change so a peace hero is anyone who's making a positive change right where they live and so to nominate someone in their classroom a co-orker a neighbor maybe somebody in your church is just awesome maybe it's a Sunday school teacher parents you can nominate your kids but we are going to look around where we live for someone who's making a positive change and then we're going to use the power of our voice to honor that person by nominating them to be a peace hero welcome to the inaugural DUTH Peace Hero Awards ceremony we are here to honor those who are making a positive change a peace hero i never really cared about peace i thought it was kind of something growing up that people said was for hippie- dippies or people who didn't really understand sacrifice or how the world worked and all that changed when I was sent as a combat medic to the Iraq War i thought why not wage peace and get what we actually want and do it here where we live in the place that we love and the place where we send our kids to school and the places where we go to work so that's what we're doing and we put out the call and we had over like 104 nominations hero is Miss D [Music] when you see a need you go out there and help them don't wait till the next person do it i think that war and peace are two sides of the same coin so every time we talk about one we should be talking about the other but I find that people are very uncomfortable when we talk about peace but once you see war and once you see how costly it is and how dysfunctional it is you see that peace is actually worth it as Kathleen promised when we filmed with her in the summer at Forest Hill Cemetery we got one of the monuments here it's in the it'll be installed this fall in autumn she invited us back to witness the fruits of her labor helmer Axel Ericson a marker that is 105 years late and and it is being um dedicated on the very day to the date that he was buried 105 years ago this is a very special day he died October 2nd at the age of 29 his obituary um published in the Duluth newspaper indicated there there were no family members there were no friends there was no one to escort the body so the American Legion commander of the David Wisted Post stepped up he and the members came brought uh Helmer to this spot buried him um he had full military honors at the time because there was no marker last summer when my team was here cleaning this area um I approached the cemetery and said "What can we do about this we need a marker for this guy and we need a marker for the two others who are missing they're from the Civil War."

And they told me what I needed to do i filled out the paperwork and um since the government is sometimes confusing to me I took it directly to Congressman Stalber's office and said "Please can you help me with this?"

And it was through the efforts of his office that we got this marker within six weeks this is this is this is how America honors our veterans kathleen you and your group to do this is phenomenal duth Honor Guard all you are here because you love our veterans and honor our veterans no matter how long ago it was 105 years ago this is amazing he immigrated from Sweden served our country helped get our troops ready to fight and here we are 105 years later after his death honoring his life of service to this great nation bugler sound taps do you feel that your work here at Forest Hill is now complete or is there more work to be done oh there's more work to be done like Kathleen articulates the goal of preserving history in general and military history specifically is a job that never ends it is an objective that can never be completed because there are always more and more layers to be uncovered no account of military history can be truly exhaustive in this documentary we have only scratched the surface of our region's role in America's armed forces the goal then has not been to be the final statement on Northland military history but rather a significant part of an ongoing conversation a quick library search reveals a body of local work that's been done to uncover Northland military narratives from academic historical accounts to deeply personal publications on the subject from the first Minnesota volunteers who were the initial soldiers to respond to Lincoln's call in the Civil War by happen stance the governor of Minnesota was in Washington DC at that time and was the first governor to volunteer the raising equipping and training of a regiment to the role of local female service members in the Vietnam War from the P camps located around the state of Minnesota during World War II to how the first American shots fired in World War II came from Minnesota soldiers a mini submarine several miles out of Pearl Harbor that was detected by the USS Ward that weapon that was used to fire that shot is actually in Minnesota State Capital now with intersecting context and perspectives layers upon layers of history bring us ever closer to understanding what it means to serve as a Northlander there was a woman from Minnesota at Pearl Harbor ruth Ericson was 4,000 m from her hometown of Virginia Minnesota when fighter planes began bombing the naval base where she was stationed over 300 women joined the armed forces from the Iron Range area and what it means to remember those who served and this is from 1893 when he was 28 which one was your grandfather right there as other people will tell you there is a camaraderie that is totally unexplainable to people who have never served in the military and I'm also a third generation Army veteran so everybody in my family truly has served my dad was a corman a Navy corman i was in the Navy um you know not glamorous but that's okay but a lot of kids uh really helped them i really enjoyed my time in the military it was the best years of my life how our service members define us there's only two Air Guard or even two Air Force locations in the state so I've seen our impact directly of what we've been able to do we don't have this mindset of like oh we're just National Guard we're in the Army and we're going to serve like many others before me i may do this until the day I die and perhaps most importantly how our region fits into the history of our nation we're proud to be veterans and proud motans also [Music] [Music] [Music]