A unique keepsake
Roy Morrison carries lasting memory from World War II
By Robert Galbreath, rgalbreath@subletteexaminer.com
PINEDALE – Today, Omaha Beach in
Normandy is a long, quiet stretch of sand
flanked by vacation homes. Peaceful fields
stretch out above the bluffs and the loud-
est sound is the churning gray water of the
English Channel.
But on June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach was
the scene of absolute terror. Thousands of
American troops made their way from land-
ing boats across sand littered with mines
and other deadly obstacles. The Americans
were easy targets for Germans hidden in a
maze of trenches and bunkers bristling with
machine guns.
Roy Morrison was one of the Americans
who set foot on Omaha Beach on June 6,
1944. He was part of the beginning of the
end for Hitler’s brutal rule over Europe.
More than 2,400 Americans lost their lives
on that beach. Morrison and one other man
were the only ones who made it alive out of
their landing craft.
“I remember we had a lieutenant in the
landing craft with us,” Morrison said, “On
the way in, he says, ‘All I can say is – when
you see the ramp go down, you start run-
ning.’”
Morrison recalls the landing craft hitting
the shoreline. The ramp dropped down. Ger-
man fire killed most of the men instantly.
“We ran like hell to get on shore,” Mor-
rison said.
After fighting their way up the fortified
bluffs, Morrison and the other survivor
eventually found another platoon to join.
Over the next weeks, they merged with
other Allied units in the first push to liber-
ate France.
“It was battle after battle, working our
Newspapers call for WWI volunteers
PINEDALE – On April 19, 1917, a week
after the United States entered World War I,
the editor of the Pinedale Roundup appealed
to his readers on the front page, “volunteers
are wanted at once!”
One week later, the editor reported in his
newspaper that Captain Waugh of the Wyo-
ming National Guard had received enough
volunteers from the Upper Green River val-
ley to form a machine gun company head-
quartered out of Pinedale. The volunteers
were to await mobilization orders from Pres-
ident Thomas Woodrow Wilson to report to
Fort D.A. Russell in Cheyenne, the Roundup
noted on May 3.
On May 17, the Roundup announced that
the new machine gun company was drilling
under the command of C.F. Patterson. The
editor urged more volunteers to join, adding,
“Patriots do not wait to be drafted.”
Dozens of men from Boulder, Pinedale,
Big Piney, Merna, Cora and Daniel enlisted
in the new company, the Roundup reported
over the following weeks. Jessie Miller of
Pinedale was named the second lieutenant
and commander of the company, according
to the paper on July 26.
The volunteers underwent a series of
physical examinations, until they were or-
dered to report to Fort D.A. Russell in Au-
gust.
“Machine gun company leaves for mobili-
zation at Cheyenne,” the editor wrote, “good
way into France,” Morrison said.
On July 14, 1944, only a few weeks
after landing in Europe, Morrison and his
unit were fighting to break through Ger-
man defenses in heavy hedgerows around
the French city of Saint-Lo. A German ma-
chine gun opened fire, “shooting seven to
10 rounds straight at me,” Morrison said.
Two bullets hit Morrison’s knee. That day
was his 20th birthday.
Morrison was evacuated to a military
hospital in Exeter, England, where he
spent several months recuperating from his
wound. Doctors had to use goat bone to re-
place the shattered knee fragments, his son
Frank Morrison said.
One of the bullets remained lodged in
Morrison’s knee for 65 years, until doctors
finally removed it in an operation. Morri-
son told the doctors that if they finally got
the bullet out, he would “wear it around my
neck for the rest of my life.”
After he was discharged from the hospi-
tal in England, Morrison was sent straight
back to France. Because his knee wound
was still healing, however, he was assigned
to cook on troop transport trains.
In December 1944, Morrison was on a
train headed from Le Harve, France, to-
ward the front lines. That month, Hitler un-
leashed one last desperate attempt to drive
the Allies back in the Ardennes forest of
Belgium, now known as the Battle of the
Bulge.
Morrison recalls that there was 7 inches
of snow on the ground and it was “colder
than heck” outside the train. He was clean-
ing up inside one of the large ovens in the
kitchen car. A man approached.
By Robert Galbreath, rgalbreath@subletteexaminer.com
byes were said with many a broken voice.”
The list of 36 men who passed muster to
travel to Cheyenne and enter the U.S. armed
forces included: Roy Stinson, Jason N. Hod-
son, Ira Bourm, Frank Carr, Paul Demshar,
Harry Kline, Frank Roop, John Kurzynske,
Ernest Faler, Frank Allen, Clarence Gilley,
Richard Dew, Fred Shields, Antone Paul-
son, Jasper Paulson, Fred Thornton, Alfred
Erickson, John Jurhs, William Holland-
sworth, James Pope, Frank Hubert, Sidney
Edwards, Gray Huston, Joe Stanton, Floyd
Smith, Clarence Smith, Forest Thompson,
Louie Steele, Albert Lovatt, Dave Mey-
ers, Mason Phillips, Clifford Phillips, Lee
Edmunson, Chris Berg, Omar Dallaire and
Jesse C. Miller.
On Aug. 30, the Roundup received pho-
tographs and letters from the men in the ma-
chine gun unit. The new soldiers drilled for
eight hours every day, and the men in the
photographs showed “the effects of this in-
tensive work,” the editor added.
The same edition of the Roundup an-
nounced that Erickson was promoted to
sergeant along with “Budd” Smith and Ker-
zynske. Bourm, Thornton, Hodson and Stan-
ton were named corporals.
That fall, the machine gun company from
the Upper Green was merged into the 196th
Regiment of the 41st Division. The men were
shipped to Camp Greene near Charlotte,
N.C., according to the Roundup on Sept. 13.
ROBERT GALBREATH PHOTOS Roy Morrison, U.S. Army, World War II, proudly
Morrison wears the bullet holds up the bullet removed from his knee 65
removed from his knee. years after he received the wound at the Battle of
Saint-Lo, the day of his 20th birthday, July 14, 1944.
“Where’s the goddamn coffee?” the man
said.
Morrison, aggravated that someone was
rudely interrupting his cleaning, kept work-
ing and responded, “It’s on the goddamn
stove.”
The man then started cussing again, ask-
ing where the cups were. Morrison stood up
and turned around, only to see that the man
was none other than Gen. George Patton.
Morrison recalls Patton taking a sip of
coffee and looking up at the ceiling.
“How many troops have you brought up
(in this train)?” Patton asked.
Morrison replied that there were around
2,000 men on the train.
“I’ll be goddamn lucky if 20 of them
come back,” Patton said.
Morrison watched Patton and his men
unload their tanks from the train and head
toward the front lines. Patton led the way,
riding in the front tank. The general had a
brusque manner, Morrison said, but “he was
a true general,” a man who wasn’t afraid to
get in front of his troops and lead them into
battle.
On another troop transport train, Morri-
son and his unit adopted two dogs, named
On Dec. 13, the Roundup reported that the
company was training to fight in Europe at
Camp Mills on Long Island, N.Y. The news-
paper published a letter from Shields.
“We are well and doing nicely,” Shields
wrote, “We are now preparing for our over-
seas journey and all the boys are raring to
go.”
On Jan. 24, 1918, the Roundup received
a letter from Lt. Miller that the men in the
machine gun company had arrived in France.
Other letters arrived later that month, but the
content was heavily censored by the military.
The only thing readers back home knew was
that the boys were “somewhere in France.”
Reports from the front arrived sporadi-
cally. On May 9, the Roundup received sev-
eral letters from the machine gun company
on the front. The men “have repeatedly been
under fire,” the editor reported, and were oc-
cupying trench positions.
“They are becoming seasoned to the sound
of the whizzing machine gun and shrapnel
fire of the enemy,” the paper added. The edi-
tor was happy to announce that so far, there
were no reports of injuries or deaths from the
men on the front.
In October, however, the paper reported
that a memorial was conducted at the Con-
gregational Church in Pinedale for three sol-
diers who lost their lives on the front. The
names of the dead, listed on Oct. 3, were
Sidney Edwards, Clifford Brown and Clif-
Sad Sack and Blackie. One day, as the train
steamed up a steep grade, the men were
cleaning the floor. One of the dogs lost their
footing on the wet floor and slid out of the
train.
Morrison immediately pulled the cord to
signal to the conductor to stop the train. The
train came to a complete stop on the hill and
had to back all the way back down before
starting up again.
Morrison was sent straight to headquar-
ters where he faced an angry panel of offi-
cers who could not believe that Morrison had
stopped a train because of a dog. But the dog
survived her ordeal and his unit kept her until
they had to ship out after the war ended.
Morrison returned to Florida to start a
family in Miami. He served for 28 years as
a lieutenant in the city of Miami Beach fire
department.
On July 14, 2018, Morrison celebrated
his 94th birthday at the parade during the
Green River Rendezvous. The entire crowd
of residents and tourists honored Morrison
by joining in to sing “Happy Birthday.” He
wore the necklace around his neck with the
bullet he received from the Germans on a
birthday 74 years ago.
ford Phillips.
That same day, the Roundup reported that
it had received a letter from Sgt. Bourm.
Bourm wrote that many of the men in the
original machine gun company had been
split up into other units. Bourm was serv-
ing as a truck driver delivering troops to the
front.
“The first bomb I heard made me have a
kind of shaky feeling and my legs wouldn’t
hardly stand,” Bourm wrote. “But now we
are hardly at home unless we can hear the
hum of the (machine guns).”
The story of the local machine gun com-
pany becomes harder to trace after October
1918. The Roundup went out of business
that month for a brief period. In November,
social revolution in Germany led the Kaiser
to abdicate. The new government sued for
peace, and an armistice was signed on Nov.
11, ending four years of bloodshed.
A brief article in the Big Piney Examiner
announced on Feb. 20, 1919, that parts of
the 41st Division were arriving in New York
City from Europe. The soldiers on their way
home from the war included six men from
Big Piney: Stanton, Loyd Wyman, Dalliare,
Loyd Smith, H.H. Moyer and “Budd” Smith.
“The citizens of Big Piney are glad to
welcome these boys,” the editor wrote. “We
will let them know that those who remained
at home appreciated their services and are
proud of them.”
Page 2 • Veterans Salute • Sublette Examiner & Pinedale Roundup
Salute to Korean War veteran Dennis Thorson
PINEDALE – The Korean War is often
referred to as the “Forgotten War,” overshad-
owed by the “greatest generation” who served
in World War II and the political divisiveness
that tore the country apart during the Vietnam
War. This is tragic, because the nearly two
million men and women who served on the
Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953 showed
the same courage, strength and determination
exhibited by soldiers in other wars.
Dennis Thorson of Pinedale served as a
truck driver in the 69th Truck Battalion in
Korea in 1953. Thorson did not see combat
and he does not think of his story as “heroic.”
Yet Thorson’s contribution to the war effort,
like the war he fought in, deserves not to be
forgotten.
Thorson and his battalion played a crucial
role in the war effort by delivering food and
supplies to troops. Thorson’s battalion was
also used to evacuate troops from the front
lines and his truck was the first leg in a sol-
dier’s safe journey home to his family.
Thorson was finishing up a semester in
college in 1953 when he decided to enlist. He
was sent to train at Fort Ord near Monterey,
Calif. Thorson worked as a bus driver to pay
his way through college and had obtained a
CDL before he enlisted. Few recruits had this
valuable piece of paper, so Thorson was im-
mediately placed in the transportation corps.
He spent eight weeks in basic training and an-
other eight weeks in driving school before he
was shipped off to Korea.
Thorson’s battalion was stationed near
the community of Uijeongbu, about 35 miles
north of Seoul. The 69th Battalion consisted
of five companies of light trucks the soldiers
called a “deuce and a half.” The trucks were
sturdy, Thorson said, but not immune to
breaking down.
When Thorson and his unit arrived in
Korea, they were tasked with driving to rail-
VETERANS DAY
November 11, 2018
We thank you
On this day, we would like to take
a moment to honor the men and women
who have sacrificed to ensure
our safety and our freedom.
www.sweetwatermemorial.com
By Robert Galbreath, rgalbreath@subletteexaminer.com
heads to pick up food supplies and deliver
them to all of the companies in the battalion
spread across 20 miles.
The supply railheads were cosmopolitan
places. The U.S. armed forces fought along-
side allies from 21 different countries. Thor-
son recalls driving in convoys with soldiers
from the United Kingdom, Greece and Tur-
key. His unit also ate at mess halls with people
from different nationalities.
“The food at the British mess halls was ter-
rible,” Thorson said. The Turks had “interest-
ing” table manners, he added. They would all
stand politely and wait until everyone else was
seated before seating themselves.
Greek units had a violent game they liked
to play during downtime, Thorson recalls.
They gathered in a circle and one soldier
would punch another. If the soldier receiving
PHOTO COURTESY DENNIS THORSON
the blow fell out of the circle, he was out. If
the soldier managed to hold his ground, he got Thorson poses in front of the truck he drove as part of the 69th Truck Battalion
to pick another soldier to punch. during the Korean War in 1953.
“Thankfully, they never invited the Ameri- Thorson’s unit used
cans to play,” Thorson said. 50-gallon tanks to store
Winters in Korea were harsh and long. food waste. Every eve-
“The cold was terrible,” Thorson said. He ning, groups of 50 to
remembered getting an assignment to put 60 Korean women ma-
up signs in the dead of winter. The men had terialized to fight over
to burn a bonfire for three days to thaw the the scraps. One night, a
ground out enough to dig holes for the posts. woman found a whole
Trucks were left running all night so the unit steak. Another woman
did not have to worry whether they would rushed over, raised her
start in the morning. bucket and smashed it
The troops in Korea were well supplied, down on the first wom-
Thorson said. They had gloves, scarves an’s head, “splitting her
and fully insulated boots he called “Mickey head open,” Thorson re-
Mouse boots.” But the biting cold still man- calls. The injured woman
aged to find some exposed skin. was left there, lying un-
Today, South Korea is an ultra-modern, conscious by the others.
wealthy nation that exports cars, technology The Korean War
and pop stars. But when Thorson served, the never officially ended,
Korean Peninsula was impoverished after but on July 27, 1953,
years of Japanese occupation and war. an armistice was signed ROBERT GALBREATH PHOTO
between all the nations Ambassador for Peace
involved. Thorson and ROBERT GALBREATH PHOTO medals were presented
his unit were assigned Dennis Thorson is at his to Thorson from the South
to drive deep into enemy home near Pinedale in Korean government for his
territory, above the 38th
parallel, now known as
October 2018. service in the Korean War.
the Demilitarized Zone, to evacuate the 1st that he was a good typist. Since he couldn’t
Marines and 21st Infantry from the front lines. drive a truck due to his banged-up foot, the
The operation was massive. officer sent Thorson to typing school at a base
‘We were playing hopscotch with the com- in Japan.
panies – rotating them out of the frontlines,” Thorson was reassigned as a typist at the
Thorson said. “I can’t even tell you how many headquarters of the 60th Light Truck Battal-
trucks were involved – too many to count. A ion. He was able to type 90 words per minute
lot of the companies we evacuated were way and worked 12-hour shifts typing up marching
above the 38th parallel.” orders for trucks in addition to preparing news
A sense of danger still pervaded. briefs.
“We were in a convoy one day when a Many years later, Thorson was finally rec-
plane flew over,” Thorson said. “We leapt out ognized for his service. A delegation from
of the truck and all of us hit the dirt.” South Korea traveled to Wyoming in 2017
Partway into his tour, Thorson fractured his to present Thorson and other Korean veter-
foot when a 50-gallon fuel tank rolled over it. ans with an “Ambassador for Peace” medal.
He was sent to the field hospital to recuper- The South Koreans recognized Thorson for
ate. He got bored lying around and started “preserving our freedom and democracy.”
to wander around headquarters. During a Thorson also received medals from Gov. Matt
conversation with an officer, Thorson let slip Mead and Sen. John Barrasso for his service.
On this day we
remember those
brave men &
women who
sacrifice to ensure
our freedom!
1200 College Drive
Rock Springs
307-362-3711
307-875-7730

An era of conflict
A salute to Vietnam War veteran Tony Keys
By Robert Galbreath, rgalbreath@subletteexaminer.com
PINEDALE – The Vietnam War polarized
America. By 1967, 500,000 U.S. troops were
stationed in South Vietnam and in April 1969,
the number of Americans killed in Vietnam sur-
passed the total death toll in the Korean War.
Opposition to the war intensified and peaked in
1968 with mass protests across the country.
Tony Keys was one of millions of Ameri-
cans who took to the streets to voice their op-
position to the war.
“I was a politically leftist radical,” Keys
said, “I was dating an SDS (Students for a
Democratic Society) girl at the time. But I kept
thinking, how can you dislike something if you
haven’t experienced it?”
Keys decided the best way to gain first-hand
experience of the war was to enlist in the Ma-
rines. Because of a draft deferment, Keys was
21 when he joined the Marine Corps in 1968.
He trained for six months in San Diego and
shipped out to Vietnam after a 30-day home
leave.
Keys served in K Battery 413, 4th Battalion
of the 13th Marines. He was stationed at two
bases, An Hoa and Que Son, during his year-
long tour from Jan. 15, 1969, to Jan. 15, 1970.
Each base was about 30 miles from the strategic
air base in Danang, a city on the central coast of
Vietnam.
Keys was a Lance Corporal, E-3, and
worked in artillery fire direction control. He
spent his days with maps and geometry tools to
calculate range and deflection for large artillery
pieces they called a “penny-nickel-nickel,” or
155 mm artillery gun.
“Our basic mission was to throw an 80-
pound shell 12 miles,” he said.
Most of Keys’ work was done at the base,
but he spent two months out in the countryside
as a field forward observer for his battery. He
traveled through the bush with infantry units
and kept track of enemy positions in order to
direct artillery fire from his battery back at base.
Completely exposed to the elements and the
enemy while out in the field, Keys said the ex-
perience “was not a fun sort of deal.”
Back at base, the soldiers lived in huts or
tents surrounded by sandbags. The base even
had a church with sandbag walls. The men built
furniture out of used ammunition cases. The
soldiers slept in cots. There was never enough
mosquito netting to go around, Keys said.
Monsoonal rains swept across the country-
side in late fall, turning dirt roads into a muddy
mess and making conditions miserable for the
men.
“The canvas on the tents didn’t stop any-
thing, even rain,” Keys said, “The tents always
stunk like hell from all the mildew.”
The canvas tents were also exposed to
enemy fire. The Vietcong used the antennae
tower at the Que Son base as a target for their
artillery. One night, Keys switched guard duty
with his tent-mate. A rocket tore through Keys’
tent, vaporizing his cot. His tent-mate was seri-
ously injured and wound up with a metal plate
in his head.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TONY KEYS
Lance Corporal, E-3, Tony Keys poses
next to sandbags at the base near
Que Son in Vietnam, 1969.
Sublette Examiner & Pinedale Roundup • Veterans Salute • Page 3
“That rocket would have killed me if I was in
the tent sleeping that night,” Keys said, “Luck
plays an awful lot in who survives, no matter
what you do to prepare.”
In February 1969, North Vietnamese forces
launched another major offensive to coincide
with the Tet New Year’s holiday. The Vietcong
attacked American bases throughout South
Vietnam, killing 1,140 Americans.
The ammo dump at Danang was hit and
Keys could see the flames from his base, 25 to
30 miles away. Then the Vietcong turned their
sights on An Hoa where Keys was stationed.
They managed to hit the ammo dump there,
too. Shrapnel flew everywhere, Keys said. The
fire burned for two days. He and his unit were PHOTO COURTESY OF TONY KEYS
“sandbagged well,” and they survived. Tony Keys, third from left, holding the right side of the flag, with fellow mem-
On the very last day of his mobilization, bers of K Battery 413, 4th Battalion, 13th Marines at Que Son, 1969.
Keys found himself fighting in the thick of a
major battle that broke out at Que Son on Jan.
10, 1970. He was supposed to fly out with his
unit on Monday morning and the Vietcong
struck on Sunday night. Keys and his unit were
tossed into the battle even though they were to
be decommissioned in less than 24 hours.
The Vietcong pounded the base with 200
rounds of mortar. Thirteen Marines were killed
and 63 wounded. Thirty-eight Vietcong were
killed. Five made it into the base perimeter.
“It was a really scary night,” Keys said,
“I thought (the Vietcong) were coming right
for me and my buddies since our time left in
Vietnam was so short you could crawl under a
snake’s belly.”
Many of the men Keys served with were
“peaceniks” and anti-war, he said. These were
the guys he spent most of his time with.
“There was a general awareness that the war
was winding down,” Keys said. PHOTO COURTESY OF TONY KEYS
“Everyone thought that the war was run Lance Corporal, E-3, Tony Keys stands outside the sandbagged walls of the
poorly by the administration. Battles seemed artillery fire direction control bunker.
fruitless. We never seemed to gain any ground,
Keys said. “We’d put a lot of money and ordi-
nance into battles – what we called $500,000
firefights – to gain a position, just to leave an
area the next day for the VC to retake.”
Keys returned home to his former group of
anti-war protesters. He attended a protest around
the time National Guard troops opened fire on
Kent State students on May 4. The America he
returned to and some of his friends disillusioned
him.
“People (at home) weren’t as concerned
about life as we were over there,” Keys said.
“We had to be on alert, fully aware, 24/7. My
former friends were lollygagging around. Peo-
ple weren’t serious enough. I took everything
seriously,” he said.
“I’m proud of my service. But I wouldn’t do
it again,” Keys said.
Keys works as a self-employed carpen-
ter, woodworker and handyman in Pinedale
and Cora. He is also the sole U.S. Commerce
Department field representative for Sublette
County and conducts census bureau surveys.
Keys is writing an adventure novel based on his
experiences.
HONORING THOSE WHO SERVED
On Veterans Day, we salute the American veterans and
active-duty military whose courage and dedication have
protected our freedom and our way of life for generations.
We recognize their service and their sacrifice, their
selflessness and bravery, their hard work and their faith.
Please join us in celebrating the men and women of our
military, past and present, this Veterans Day. Proudly fly
your flag, thank a veteran and show your support for those
who continue to serve today.
ROBERT GALBREATH PHOTO
Tony Keys, October 2018.
Page 4 • Veterans Salute • Sublette Examiner & Pinedale Roundup
A military family
Marriage survives 42 years and multiple deployments
By Robert Galbreath, rgalbreath@subletteexaminer.com
PINEDALE – Billie and Shawn Hamby
are a modern military family. The couple
has 42 years of combined service in the Air
Force and they were both deployed in con-
flicts from the first Persian Gulf War to the
Global War on Terrorism.
The Hambys both enlisted in the Air
Force immediately after graduating high
school. Shawn Hamby landed in Germany
for his first assignment in 1991 and Billie
Hamby was stationed at the same base two
years later. The couple married and had
their first child in Germany.
For the next two decades, Billie and
Shawn Hamby raised a family on military
bases around the country and across the
globe. They were each deployed to com-
bat zones several times. Luckily, their unit
never sent both parents at the same time,
so while one parent was overseas, the other
was in charge of family duties.
Being away from family was hard and
people often asked them how they man-
aged to raise a family while both parents
were in the service.
“We didn’t know any better,” Shawn
Hamby said, “We didn’t have an experi-
ence of life outside the military until we
retired.”
Billie Hamby added that the distance
provided a new perspective for her, making
her “appreciate what I have back home.”
The Air Force was always there to help
and Billie Hamby said that the other ser-
vicemen and women in their unit were like
Billie and Shawn Hamby stand in front of the Sublette County Veteran’s an extended family.
Service Office in October. “We had our first kid in Germany, far
from our families,” Shawn Hamby said,
“But everyone in our unit stepped up to
help. We didn’t have to furnish our first
house because our neighbors ended up giv-
Remembering
ing us so many things.”
Shawn Hamby’s first deployment was
in Ta’if, Saudi Arabia, in the aftermath of
our veterans
Operation Desert Storm. He specialized in
computers and worked on a team that flew
U2 spy planes over Iraq. The plane’s cock-
pit was built in a way that prevented the
pilot from seeing the runway during take-
On Veterans Day, we honor the off and landing, Hamby said. So the high-
tech planes had to be guided up and down
members of our armed forces who the runway by “souped-up Mustangs” rac-
served and made the ultimate sacrifice. ing along at 150 mph in the desert heat,
he added. Pogo sticks held the wings up
Their courage and dedication will and a Chevy crew cab followed behind the
convoy to pick the sticks up.
always be remembered. Hamby’s second deployment was to
Bosnia as part of the NATO peacekeep-
ing force during the Kosovo Crisis. Bosnia
Lest we forget. still showed the scars of its recent war-torn
Veterans Day 2018, November 11 past. Marble was the biggest import into
Sarajevo because it was needed for the
many headstones, Hamby said. The for-
mer Olympic field in Sarajevo was a cem-
etery. Active minefields existed all over
the place. NATO teams frequently dug up
mass graves.
“Seeing these things – there’s no way to
describe it,” Hamby said.
Billie Hamby’s first deployment was to
Kuwait in 2005 as the insurgency against
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American troops in Iraq intensified. This
was the first time Hamby had been in the
Middle East when a war was going on. She
said it was frightening landing the first
night in full combat readiness, with body
armor on and the windows sealed.
While Kuwait was outside the war-zone
raging in Iraq, danger always lurked. Ter-
rorists attacked U.S. bases and targets in
Kuwait. Hamby said that she and her unit
always had to be on high alert.
“One minute you’re working out or
going about your business,” she said. “The
next minute the alarms go off and you go
into full combat mode.”
Like her husband, Hamby specialized
in computers and communications. In Ku-
wait, she worked as a “moral supporter,”
maintaining Internet and phone services on
base so soldiers could communicate with
loved ones at home.
Hamby describes her experience in Ku-
wait as “eye opening.” In 2005, the main
base was still primitive and all soldiers
lived in tents, dealing with a constant
barrage of sand. There was no plumbing.
Trees and green grass were scarce. When
she left the base, Hamby had to follow the
strict Islamic codes of the country. She
had to fully cover up, was forbidden from
speaking to local men and was not allowed
to drive.
Hamby returned to Kuwait for a second
deployment in 2008. The base had im-
proved dramatically, with dorms instead
of tents, plumbing, a movie theatre and
a gym. But the sense of danger still per-
vaded. During her second tour, terrorists
blew up a dining hall down the road from
where Hamby was stationed.
Shawn Hamby served on two additional
deployments to Iraq in 2008 and 2010. He
was a member of an air control squadron
stationed out of Balad Air Base, 25 miles
north of Baghdad. His squadron worked to
set up small air bases in forward positions
outfitted with temporary runways and con-
trol towers. Only three of these specialized
squadrons operated during the Iraq War,
Hamby said.
Between his times in Iraq, Hamby spent
a brief period in Afghanistan on “site vis-
its” to check out air facilities. He and his
unit were on full alert and had to sleep in
level-four body armor every night.
“I didn’t sleep for five days in Afghani-
stan,” he said. “Everything was so sketchy.
A local guy might be your friend one day
and the next day shoot you in the back.”
Hamby also served on one deployment
in the small African country of Djibouti,
near the war-torn region of Somalia.
Hamby said that all of his deployments
had a silver lining because of the fascinat-
ing and historically important places he
was able to see. He visited the sail-shaped
Burj al Arab in Dubai – one of the world’s
tallest hotels. In Sarajevo, he stayed at the
same hotel where Archduke Franz Ferdi-
nand was lodging in 1914 before he was
assassinated, setting off World War I.
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