Letters to the editor
Enie was more than a plumber
To the Editor:
In last week's Marion County Record, I saw the obituary for Eugene Gilbert. The article merely reported that "he was a plumber." In fact, he also was a highly decorated war hero.
At our house when I was growing up, he was just known as "Enie." As a child, all I knew was that Enie sometimes came to our house to fix the plumbing and that he was my dad's friend.
Enie and my dad, E.G. "Pat" Westerhaus, grew up together in Florence and they served together in Europe during World War II. Although they were in different units, I know they checked up on each other while they were "over there."
We've learned from Tom Brokaw in "The Greatest Generation" that when these veterans came home after the war, they just wanted to put it behind them and get on with their lives.
Occasionally, usually on a car trip, my dad would tell a few war stories. That's how I learned that Enie was a hero.
If I remember correctly, Enie won a Silver Star while he served our country. My husband tells me that Silver Stars are rare, and they are awarded only for extreme gallantry in combat.
My sister Denise, remembers that Enie stormed a German bunker and took out a whole group of the enemy single-handedly. She thinks it was after Enie had just learned that a friend of his had been killed, and he was so affected by the news he grabbed a machine gun and stormed the German position.
I wonder why nothing was written in the Marion County Record about this hero in the midst of your community?
Was it because you didn't know? Or was it because this man was so modest that he never spoke of his war record?
How many other men of that generation have gone to their graves, their service to our country known only to their long-ago buddies and maybe their own families?
Whatever the case, I always will remember my dad's stories about his Army buddies — Enie, Jones, Boettcher, Grace, and Smitty.
I wonder if their hometowns know what they did so long ago? Once upon a time, far across the world, they put their own lives on hold to change our destiny. If we don't tell these old stories, and current stories, about the "plumbers" who protect our freedom, how can our children learn the lessons of history?
Kathy (Westerhaus) Doak
Dallas, Texas
Who's in charge?
To the Editor:
In regard to our well-kept park in Marion.
We (our family) had a picnic Saturday in the park. I called to check if we needed to reserve the partially-shaded picnic table. I was told no, but if anyone else called they would tell them we had called first.
We arrived around 10 a.m. so our nine great-grandchildren, ranging in age from two through 11 could run and play. Soon one needed to go to the bathroom.
Wrong. The doors were locked. We went to the city building to check. There were two telephone numbers to call. One did not answer. The other number was called three times with no results in getting the doors unlocked.
Kids were gathered up and taken to Ampride where the doors were open. Men could hide behind the trees but children and women had no place to hide.
We had family from Minnesota, Salina, and other towns. Having to run somewhere else to use the restroom left a bad impression for our town of Marion.
There should be a person for unlocking the restrooms and one for doing the job when the other cannot. There also should be a specified time to unlock the doors.
I realize the trouble Marion has had with restrooms being vandalized in the past, but in the daytime that is no excuse. The doors were unlocked between 11:30 a.m. and noon.
We were not the only people having a picnic and some of those people were checking the doors and could not get in.
Marion has one of the best well-kept parks in the state of Kansas, but after our bad experience Saturday it makes me wonder who is running the city?
Vernolis Siebert
Marion
