The 15th Annual Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Crookston Veterans Ceremony was held on Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church during the Ox Cart Days festival. The four veterans honored were James Altepeter, Paul Dubuque, James Johnson, and William (Bill) Langlois.
Partners of the event include the Ox Cart Days Committee, Northern Valley Quilts of Valor, Master of Ceremonies – Tom Helgeson, KROX Radio, Crookston American Legion Auxiliary Unit 20, Crookston Classic Cruisers, DAV Auxiliary Unit 14, Brian (Freddie) Anderson, Crookston VFW Post 1902, Ye Ole Print Shoppe, Trinity Lutheran Church, and Mike Nelson.
Information on the four Veterans are below.
JAMES ALTEPETER (Navy)
James graduated from Cathedral High School and immediately joined the US Navy on July 25, 1966. If you joined before you graduated, the service would allow you to choose the branch you wanted to join and the field of expertise you wanted to pursue. I took off for boot camp in San Diego, CA, and was designated as a Corpsman.
After boot camp, I went to a Navy hospital in Philadelphia. I worked in general surgery and proctology for one year. I received an assignment to the Naval Publication and Form Center in North Philadelphia for one more year. We oversaw all medical treatments, dispensed preliminary medications, and performed physicals and lab work, dental assistants, and performed preventative care, injections, and maintained patient treatment records.
He served six months on the destroyer USS Perry (DD844). We were on the blue waters of Vietnam. Upon returning to the United States, formal discharge from Mayport, Florida, occurred on April 17, 1970.
After leaving the service I returned home to Crookston and found work as an Iron Worker, and I traveled all over the country. I was supervisor for KMH construction out of the Twin Cities.
We built the I-35 retaining wall that went up through Duluth. I traveled West as far as Idaho, Nebraska, and Iowa. I spent thirty years at this job and retired in 2001.
I met my wife Twylla Johson through the Vern Fredericks Horse Shows at UMC. Twylla oversaw the Winter Shows Horse Stables. We married in 1979. We have four children together, Sharon, David, Pam, and Deb. David and Kelsey have two boys Johnny and Cameron. Pam and Rodney have one son, Mitchel.
Awards and Medals: Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal
PAUL DUBUQUE (Army National Guard)
Paul Dubuque chose to enlist rather than be drafted. He initially chose the Navy but switched to the Army National Guard after meeting his future wife, Kathy Russell at a dance at Bemidji State College in 1970.
Paul was inducted at the Old Armory in Crookston Minnesota on January 21, 1971. His basic training was at Fort Polk in Louisiana. It was called “Little Viet Nam” due to the same climate and conditions as Vietnam. He remembers it was hot and humid all the time and a swampland filled with snakes, mosquitoes and cockroaches. When you jumped into a foxhole you didn’t know what you might find.
Due to the extreme heat, trainees marched to training with full field packs in the early morning and rode back to the barracks in cattle cars in the afternoon. He completed basic training in November 1971.
Paul was stationed at the Crookston Armory, attending monthly training. There were 2 weeks of annual training at Camp Ripley, as well as training at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California, for three weeks, where it was all Russian trainers and equipment.
Paul served during the Vietnam Era and Gulf War as a member of Co. B (P) 2nd BN 236th (Merch) infantry. As a mechanized infantry unit he trained with APC’s and did begin training on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle during the Gulf War. His MOS was 11B infantryman, but he was also trained in Supply (92Y) and as Retention NCO (79T) and was assigned these duties for 2 years for promotion purposes during his career.
Paul received attendance, time served awards, and the National Defense Ribbon. One of the Sate awards was the Minnesota State Active Duty Ribbon for state duty in the aftermath of the Gary, MN tornado, State activation for flooding in East Grand Forks and Crookston; and using a modified APC to assist the State Patrol and Sheriff’s department looking for people in blizzards. A second Minnesota Service Ribbon was awarded for 20 years of service with the gold Roman Numerals V, X, XV and XX. In his 17th year of service, he decided to step back from E6 to E5 and then again E5 to E4 to allow other soldiers to advance in rank as he planned to retire at 20 years and he did not have time to advance to E7 in that 3-year period. His commanding officer and first sergeant guaranteed him that he would retire with his highest rank. He was honorably discharged in May of 1991 at the rank of E6.
His favorite story is about Paul and Paul Henre sharing a fox hole. Part of the training was to dig your own fox hole, and it had to be deep enough for you to stand in. Once dug, they were out on maneuvers and got the order to get into their foxholes immediately. In their rush, Paul Henre and Paul Dubuque accidentally switched sides. Paul Henre is over 6 feet tall, so his side was at chest level, and Paul Dubuque’s was over his head. They had to use a rifle so he could hold on and walk up the side of the foxhole to get out.
Paul made lifelong friends. The comradery and bonds were such that a person would give his life for his brothers in arms. He did not like training for war but enjoyed his time with the guys and the food. Co. B had the best cooks in the Battalion.
Paul married Kathy in 1972 during the weekend of his first guard camp. When they set the date, he was unaware of the National Guard schedule, and the schedule did not come out until all the wedding arrangements were made. Seventeen times over the course of his National Guard career, he could not spend his wedding anniversary with Kathy, but with the scheduling of 3 winter camps, he could enjoy three anniversaries. They have been married for 53 years and have three children: Sam, Andrew and Michelle and 13 grandchildren. Paul is retired and is currently serving as the Grand Knight for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Crookston Knights of Columbus Council #1216. He is a member of the American Legion, Nels T. Wold Post 20 in Crookston. He is currently the Finance Officer and has held many offices.
JAMES DUANE JOHNSON (Navy)
James Duane Johnson (Jimmy) was born and raised in the Eldred and Crookston area. His parents were Charles and Mamie Johnson. Jimmy had four brothers & two sisters. He attended Central High School prior to enlisting in the US Navy at the age of seventeen. He chose to follow in the footsteps of his father Charles, who fought in WW1, and his brothers Carl, who served in the Army & Donald, who served in the Navy. He enlisted and was inducted on April 28, 1966. Place of entry was Naval Station San Diego, CA. He completed boot camp in August of 1966.
From August 1966 to May 1967, he was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Regulus, a supply ship headquartered in Alameda, California. They made two trips to Vietnam. When his ship first arrived in Vietnam, they became engaged in the TET Offensive; also known as the Big One or the takeover of Saigon. From there they went to Guam to meet up with the second ship he would be on.
In May 1967 Jimmy was sidelined due to a jaw injury. He was sent back to the United States to a hospital for ten weeks. He was then stationed on the U.S.S. Madera County from July 1967 to February 1969. Their mission was to deliver troops and supplies along the rivers. The ship had a flat bottom, so it was designed for the river.
Jimmy was discharged in Los Angeles, California on February 11, 1969. His rank at the time of discharge was Seaman. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze Stars & Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device. Jimmy said that the military taught him how to take orders, stern lessons and to work as a team.
Jimmy worked on the railroad from 1974 to 1990 when he returned home. He was injured on the job in 1987 and resigned in 1990. He then worked for Grove Sports, Fleet Supply & selling pull tabs for the VFW. He is a Life Member of the VFW 1902 Crookston.
On September 15, 1973, he married the love of his life, Marlys Thompson, in Crookston. September will be their 52nd Anniversary. They have three sons, Duane, Darin, and Drew, six grandchildren—Dylan, Darin, Chloe, Taylor, Jaelyn, and Maci—and two great-grandchildren, Emett and Collin.
In retirement, he enjoys hunting as well as classic cars and is a member of Crookston Classic Cruisers
WILLIAM (BILL) LANGLOIS (Army)
William (Bill) Langlois was inducted into the Army in Fargo, ND on June 30th, 1966. The Vietnam War was going on, and I decided to join the Army as my dad was in the Army during WWII, and I also wanted to receive training and schooling in computer repair.
He was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, MO for 5 days until I received orders and was then sent to Fort Campbell, KY to complete basic training. After basic training, he was sent to Fort Monmoth, NJ for 8 months to learn Computer and Software Repair on the UNIVAC 1003.
In August 1967, Bill was sent to Vietnam. They did not have a position for him as they really didn’t use computers where he was sent, so they assigned him to the 937 Combat Engineering in Pleiku, Central Vietnam. The job there was repairing typewriters, but no parts were available, so he did a lot of night patrol and security. From there was assigned to Quinhon, Vietnam. It was there that he worked on computers and maintained them for six months. Then, the IBM 360 came out on the market, and IBM brought in its own people to work on them, so Bill’s services were not needed. Again, he was placed on security and guard duty. Bill was assigned to the Motor Pool and drove the higher-ups sometimes in a 1967 Ford Sedan, and also drove jeeps and 3/4-ton trucks, and enjoyed this position. He extended my tour an extra five months to 17 months, which enabled me to reduce my military time by 6 months.
After leaving Vietnam, he flew to Fort Lewis, WA, and was processed out of the service on February 6, 1969, as a Spec 5 (SP5). He was Awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Expert Rifle M 14 Badge.
In 1971, Bill married Amy Evenson from Climax, MN. We have been together for 53 years. They began farming in Gentilly, MN, and still farm today. They have three children, Melissa, Andrea, and Shane, and five wonderful grandchildren.
Bill’s takeaway from service in Vietnam was that the US Government changed the money supply to counter the Black Market. In this process, the Vietnamese people lost all of their savings and would have to start all over again, as the old money was not good. This could happen anywhere in the world at any time.