RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating after encouraged motorists keep an eye on their bank account if you use cards to pay for fuel.
Police found two skimming devices on a gas pump in Riley County Wednesday. While it’s good that these two were found, there is a chance there may be others that haven’t been located, according to a social media report.
In March police in Manhattan responded to separate calls from local gas stations reporting they had found “skimmers” or devices that can be used to obtain credit or debit card information from customers paying at the pump.
In July police reported skimmers on Bank ATMs in Garden City and Salina.
Police reminded there are different types of skimmers. Some are external on gas pumps or ATMs, but can blend in and other are internal and steal your information electronically.
They encouraged motorist be aware when you fill up, and notice if something is different at the pump
Look to make sure security seals are not broken, watch your bank statements regularly and Report criminal activity when it happens
RILEY COUNTY — A Manhattan woman was injured in an accident just after 2p.m. Wednesday in Riley County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1990 Pontiac passenger vehicle driven by Alexis A. Hamilton, 35, was eastbound on U.S. 24 just east of Walters Drive.
The vehicle rear-ended a 2017 Mitsubishi SUV driven by Jory J. Bailey, 39, Anchorage, Alaska.
The driver pulled over into the left turn lane and the Pontiac rear-ended the SUV a second time.
Hamilton was transported to Via Christi. Bailey was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Military retirees will have the opportunity to be entertained and informed about the famed U.S. navy Blue Angels precision flight team when former Blue Angels pilot, Steve Lambert, addressed the luncheon audience at Retiree Appreciation Day Friday, October 20, at Riley’s Conference Center, Fort Riley.
Retirees wishing to attend the lunch must make advanced reservations by Monday, October 16, by calling 785-239-3320 or by emailing the Retirement Services Office at georgia.a.rucker.civ@mail.mil.
Activities are scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. They will range from presentations by TRICARE and healthcare expert, Glenn Sueter to the Commander of Irwin Army Community Hospital, Colonel John Melton.
There also be a presentation on the 100th anniversary of the 1st Infantry Division by Dr. Robert Smith, Fort Riley’s Museum Curator.
The Executive Director of the Kansas Sheriff’s Association, Sandy Horton, says for $25 you can be an honorary member of the Association. The tax-deductible contribution will help support efforts to improve public safety through tougher crime prevention legislation, and professional and education programs for law enforcement officers.
The resources also help promote scholarships for high school students, up to 13 $1,000 scholarships are given per year plus one $2,000 Sheriff Matt Samuels Scholarship, to students attending a two-year or four-year college or university.
An honorary membership entitles you to a membership ID card, bumper sticker nd subscription to the Kansas Sheriff newsletter.
The Association is comprised of sheriffs from across the state.
DICKINSON COUNTY — A Kansas woman died in a fire Tuesday in Dickinson County.
Just before 8:30a.m fire crews responded to the fire at a home in the 200 Block of South Lincoln in Enterprise, according to Sheriff Gareth Hoffman.
Fire crews found the home fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Once inside, they found the body 48-year-old Patricia Humes, according to Hoffman.
Cause of the fire is ruled undetermined and possibly accidental, according to Enterprise Fire Chief Cecil Thrush.
Two dogs and a cat also perished in the fire. The home is considered a total loss, according to Thrush.
Fire District Number One and the Abilene Fire Department assisted the Enterprise Volunteer Fire Department in fighting the blaze.
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DICKINSON COUNTY —The Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating the cause of fatal Tuesday fire in Dickinson County.
Just before 8:30a.m fire crews responded to the fire at a home in the 200 Block of South Lincoln in Enterprise, according to Sheriff Gareth Hoffman.
Fire crews found the home fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Once inside, they found the body 48-year-old Patricia Humes, according to Hoffman.
Fire District Number One and the Abilene Fire Department assisted the Enterprise Volunteer Fire Department in fighting the blaze.
The JCHS Way Forward information on the proposed new Junction City High School was one topic at the Breakfast Optimist Club meeting this week.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Corbin Witt touched on some of the issues facing JCHS. He noted the current high school building is 60-years old. It has issues with leaks in classrooms and the Commons Area, plumbing that’s deteriorating, the hallways and classrooms are small for the career programs in the academy structure to prepare students for certifications and post-secondary training, there is “hot” asbestos in the building, it is not ADA compliant, the fire alarms are outdated and inadequate, the HVAC system is outdated and inconsistently heats and air conditions rooms.
A question was asked: “Why don’t we know where the school will be built?” Witt’s response was that it will be built west of town, with land purchased at a reasonable price as determined by the Board of Education, and with no tax increase. He reported that the time to take advantage of the current situation is now. Witt said some taxpayers do not want the school district to buy land in advance of the vote on November 7, in case the bond issue does not pass. They feel the purchase of land is premature until a decision has been made.
Witt stated, “With the 47% guaranteed from the State, Heavy Impact Aid, and the use of money from the current mill levy, taxpayers would not have an increase in their taxes and a new JCHS would be built not to exceed $105 million dollars.” The cost of construction and supplies continue to rise, so now is the best time to build.
Voters will cast ballots on November 7th on a bond issue, that if approved would result in the State of Kansas paying 47% of the cost of the project. The final day to register to vote is October 17th.
Dr. Claude harwood, left, talks with Chap. ( Maj.) Christian Goza, 1st Infantry Division deputy chaplain, about the history of the 1st Infantry Division while visiting the Cavalry Museum at Fort Riley. ( Photo Credit: Collen McGee, Fort Riley Public Affairs )
FORT RILEY, Kansas – While the sounds of machine guns firing blanks during the Fort Riley Fall Apple Day Festival could be heard in the distance, Dr. Claude Harwood, 93, was visiting Fort Riley and the 1st Infantry Division and recalling his time with the “Big Red One.”
“Doc” Harwood walked into the Cavalry Museum and the tat-tat-tat receded into the hush of history on display. He began to talk about his service in Germany during WWII and explained how his meeting with his first company commander there didn’t go well.
“Our command post was in kind of a — well it wasn’t really a basement, it was the lower floor of a barracks building, a German barracks building,” Harwood said. “When I came in there, this is kind of gross, they had a number nine can for urination and I kicked that can over and poor Lt. Magnaberg he hit the ceiling. After he settled down, he said, ‘Well, we’re going to put you out in the perimeter for night watch.'”
Harwood described the position as a fairly deep foxhole about 50 feet from the headquarters building and between 200 to 300 yards from the German line. They couldn’t get to it safely in the daylight as any movement drew fire from German machine guns. So they crept out to the position after dark, relieved the previous man and Harwood spent the next 24 hours, his first full day in the combat theater, in that hole.
“I’d been there about an hour or two and there was machine gun tracer bullets fired at a 45-degree angle,” Harwood said. “I guess that was to get you to poke your head up to kind of look around and see what was going on and then there was a strafing — no tracers at all — just machine gun bullets about 18 inches above that foxhole. Fortunately, I stayed down in there. I’d heard about that . you want to keep as low as you can.”
Doc then divulged the tensest few minutes of his first night watch.
“Then during the night, I heard some activity outside of my foxhole,” Harwood said. “I thought maybe that was Germans creeping up there. I had a Browning automatic rifle and I cocked that thing just ready to fire it and this great big ol’ Belgian rabbit hopped out. Boy, I was sure glad to see him. That was my war story for my first night on the front line.”
Not every night of his two years and four months at war was “hare” raising. Harwood said some nights were spent with dirt and shrapnel raining down and some were spent snug in an improvised dugout with a few candles for light and a little heat, a blanket and a wool coat in the deepest parts of winter.
Harwood served in what would prove later to be the longest series of battles of the war and it would ultimately claim enough German and American casualties to populate Manhattan, Kansas, or about 61,000 in all. The battle was for control of the roads through the Hurtgen Forest and was a major objective before crossing the Rhine River. The campaign holds the record for the longest land engagement in U.S. Army history.
Harwood arrived just as the village of Aachen fell and, according to the Cantigny Military History Series on the “Blue Spaders” of the 26th Infantry Regiment, the objective of the rest of the campaign through the Hurtgen Forest was a push to control the road and cut off the Germans’ ability to resupply their troops.
While Harwood’s unit, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Inf. Div., made its way across the forest, another unit battled for control of Hill 400. From the top of that 400-meter hill, the German soldiers had a view of the entire forest — including the area Harwood and his battle buddies occupied as they went along. The New York Times reported in September 1944 that the hill finally fell to Allied troops. But Harwood said he didn’t know about Hill 400. His unit didn’t encounter much small-arms, close-in combat. They encountered mortars and machine guns as they moved out to occupy the area captured by the troops ahead of them.
“I was just there and I remember going into it,” Harwood said about the dense forest. “It was just dark; trees everywhere. I guess they had some prepared positions because I don’t remember digging a foxhole or anything in the Huertgen Forest. The main thing I remember about it is the Germans would set their mortar shells — the fuse on them — so when they hit a tree limb or something like that they’d explode and just shower the area with shrapnel. And you could hear that shrapnel coming down.”
Harwood gave credit to his helmet for protection.
“I never did get hit by a piece of it,” Harwood said and tapped the side of his head with a finger. “Of course I had a steel helmet. I guess it might have shed them off you know?”
It wasn’t until the push through the forest was completed that Harwood was wounded.
“I was wounded just as we came out of the Huertgen Forest,” Harwood said. “As we exited the Huertgen Forest there was a little village. I don’t know, it was probably a quarter — a half mile — I don’t know how far it was from the edge of the forest. We went in there just at dusk. It was the day . it was Thanksgiving Day actually. This building had been pretty badly damaged but the basement was still intact … Even though the top of it was damaged, the basement was pretty much intact. So I had, well all of us did … We kind of set up in the basement and couple of us would be up on the floor above and kind of watch for Germans. The guy that I relieved said he saw some Germans walking down the street but he thought they were on patrol or retreating and no shots were fired or anything. When I came out I didn’t see any Germans at all — they’d probably fled.”
The lack of an enemy wasn’t the only thing Harwood found himself thankful for that day. The president had made a promise and that evening Harwood received the fruit of it. Two years earlier, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. And this year was special.
“President Roosevelt said every American was going to have turkey on Thanksgiving Day,” Harwood said. “And sure enough, after dark, a jeep rolled up with turkey sandwiches — a piece of turkey between two slices of bread and some half-warm coffee — that was my Thanksgiving dinner, so I appreciated it — I mean it tasted good. I had it over a newspaper so I could collect the crumbs and get every bit of it.”
It was the next day when Harwood would meet the bullet with his name on it.
“The next morning after breakfast — I think I had a K-ration or a C-ration for breakfast and as I was finishing that this one plane came over. There were two tanks that came up during the night and they were on either side of that building. I doubt if it was a German plane. I never did see it. It was only one plane and the Germans usually were just one plane. The Americans usually would come over in swarms, they had a lot of planes. But anyway, this plane strafed those two tanks and I think probably it was because they had failed to put out the proper identification panels and he was just warning us we’d better be careful. But one of those bullets came through the roof of that building and went right through the rim of my helmet and just peppered my face with little fragments of helmet . the bullet went right through the lobe of my ear and put a pretty good gash in it.”
Harwood presented himself to the medical team at the battalion aid station and they sent him to another facility to have the fragments removed.
“I was walking wounded I wasn’t hurt very bad,” Harwood said. “They loaded several of us in a jeep and took us to where we could get into an ambulance and took us to Liege, Belgium.”
Harwood discovered that the hospital there was run by a medical team from the University of Kansas.
“The triage nurse said, ‘This kid is from Kansas,’ and they just gave me the royal treatment,” Harwood said. “I spent a couple of days in that hospital and at night they had the windows all covered with blankets and stuff and you could hear the buzz bombs go over. You knew they were headed for England
and they had a peculiar sound that you just couldn’t hear anywhere else . After about two days they loaded us on a hospital train and took us to, a suburb of Paris.”
The stay in that hospital was short and Harwood found himself returned to duty when the German offensive picked up. He’d received a Purple Heart he said he didn’t feel he warranted and a respite he said he was grateful for. He also knew what he wanted to do after the Army, not only because he’d always dreamed of medicine, but because of the treatment he received when he got to the hospital in Belgium.
“I felt like I was home because I thought if I went into medicine, that’s where I would go . the University of Kansas,” Harwood said. “In high school I’d thought about being a doctor. I knew the road was pretty hard, I didn’t know whether I could afford it . but that’s what I wanted to do. After I got out, I got the G.I. Bill and I got my undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and then I went into the University of Kansas Medical Center. So I was able to get through all of that without any debt which was
unusual.”
Through help from his parents and his wife, Marilyn, whom he met in college, he transitioned from the rank of technician third grade to doctor. The rank of T-3 is about the equivalent of a sergeant or staff sergeant in today’s Army. But the Army wasn’t quite through — at least not through trying. Harwood said a recruiter tried to entice him back into the Army as a captain when he was close to graduation. He said at that time his duty was to his parents and in-laws as they were aging.
“When I was in the Army I thought, ‘Boy if I ever get back to Kansas I’m going to pretty much stay there,” Harwood said.
He returned to Larned, Kansas, after college and was true to his word. But he did have some advice for Soldiers transitioning out of the Army today.
” .take full advantage of the G.I. Bill because that’s a big thing,” Harwood said. “Like I say, it was something that I benefited from at that time. That was my only VA thing at that time that I did.”
A live-streaming discussion about the making of the “The Vietnam War” will be broadcast on Tuesday, October 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Visitors Center of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. The free program is open to the public.
Cokie Roberts will moderate the discussion from the National Archives in Washington D.C., with directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, about their PBS documentary series. “The Vietnam War.” This program is in conjunction with the November 10 opening of the National Archives exhibit “Remembering Vietnam.” It is presented in part by the National Archives Foundation through the support of L3 Technologies, Inc.
“The Vietnam War” features testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both sides.
The Geary County Rural Fire Department has taken possession of a new 2,000 gallon tanker fire unit.
Rural Fire Chief Garry Berges said the unit will replace a 1980 1,800 gallon tanker that had been in service. The tanker will be housed at the Main Rural Fire Station in Junction City and will respond to major fires in Geary County to supply water. The majority of the rural area in the county has no water hydrants and firefighters rely on water tankers to supply the water needed to fight fires.
Berges said the tanker was made possible through a FEMA Assistance to Firefighter grant in the amount of $205,000 that the department applied for late in 2016. The truck was purchased for $187,301 with the grant paying for 95%. The Fire Department paid the remaining amount of $9,365. The remaining excess grant money will be utilized to purchase additional firefighting equipment.
In addition to carrying water, the tanker also carries a floating pump and a dump tank that can be set up at fire scenes so that the water can be off loaded. The floating pump will then be used to supply the water to another fire unit on the scene. That allows the tanker to shuttle water from a water source to the fire scene.
Berges added once the volunteer firefighters are trained on the tanker unit, it will be placed in service.
The desire of Junction City and Geary County elected officials to see an additional combat brigade team stationed at Fort Riley in the future was a topic when a local delegation met with Congressional staffers on Tuesday in Washington D.C.
Junction City Mayor Phyllis Fitzgerald said they discussed the available land at Fort Riley and the quick mobility to leave the area for deployments, “the communities that are surrounding Fort Riley and Junction City, our partnerships that we have with the Fort and our veteran population.”
FItzgerald said the staffers listen to what the local leaders say. “When the bills are being written they advise the Senators and the Representatives of the concerns of the communities, they help to make it be known what the needs are, and to fight for what our needs are that we want.”
The local delegation returns to Junction City on Wednesday.
