A4 | Friday, December 9, 2016

THE GROVE SUN

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OPINION

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Bits & Pieces

Infamy

ec. 7, 1941.
Ill admit.
Until this week,
this date was something
confined to the history
books.
Ive read about the
attack at Pearl Harbor,
and Ive done my fair
share of studying of
World War II.
Somehow though, the
stories and photos were
simply words on a page.
Oh, its not that I didnt
appreciate the information, and honor the
soldiers and sailors who
fought during this time
period.
Its just, somehow it just
didnt connect with this
midwest farm girl.
For me, its always
been easier to grasp the
significance and depth of
the Civil War, as opposed
to other battles in our
nations history.
Maybe its because Ive
stood on battlefields. Ive
listened to tour guides tell
about the skirmishes.
Ive not only read about
the history, but Ive held
relics in my hand. Ive
been able to imagine life
in the south after visiting
a plantation.
Ive studied about
Harriet Tubman and the
Underground Railroad
and read (and held) quilts
that contained secret
symbols to guide people
to safety.
Ive even visited recreations of
battles complete with
encampments filled with
people dressed (and
talking) as if they have
stepped straight from a
history book page.
But things changed this
weekend, as I was given
make that blessed
with the opportunity to
talk with Earl Casey
Bangert.
In my quest to find a
survivor of the attack on
Pearl Harbor, my many
phone calls and story
leads led me to Bangert, a
93-year-old man living in
Pittsburg, Kansas.
Bangert didnt want
to talk at first, laughing
when I told him how I
found out about him.
He kept telling me over
and over again, how he is
not a hero. To him, a hero
is someone who died in
battle like his brother
or someone who was
wounded by swimming

kaylea m.
hutson-miller
through burning oil
like many at Pearl Harbor
on that fateful day.
Bangert, and later
Valentino Tino Burnett
of Jay and Howard Hill
of Grove, told me about
their time during World
War II.
Using word pictures
they told me about their
service, why they joined
and ultimately, how they
survived the war.
Somehow, through
their stories, a connection
has been made. The light
bulb went on. It was more
than just history. Their
stories made it a living,
breathing experience for
me.
After this week, Im not
sure Ill look at the events
of Pearl Harbor or the
other milestones of that
great war the same. For
the first time in my life,
I have a desire to go to
Hawaii not to sit on the
beach, but to visit the USS
Arizona, USS Oklahoma
and USS Missouri.
I dont want to soak
in sun. I want to soak
in the history. I want to
learn from it, and use the
knowledge to help shape
the future so we, as a
nation, are not destined
to repeat past mistakes.
I want to learn from
men like Bangert, Burnett
and Hill. I dont want their
stories and the stories
of the men and women
who bravely served in our
military to be lost.
Im grateful, on this
day, to have freedom
given to me by the men
and women who serve
our country.
Because I know that
freedom comes with a
huge price that I can
never, ever fully repay
beyond two simple words.
Thank you.
Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller
is the managing editor of
The Grove Sun. Have an
idea for a column or story?
She can be reached at
khutson@grovesun.com or
918-786-2228.

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Shes Good To Go

Pioneer woman cuts a wide

swath in tall prairie grass
L
ets seehow can I
describe it? A really
big star, the kind
that causes folks to gush
or gasp, all while taking
photos to announce they
were near greatness.
People are willing to
wait in line, think concert
tickets go on sale style. All
this is happening in a setting of a Cracker Barrel on
steroids on a Black Friday,
in the middle of Oklahoma,
in a tiny town. Yeah, that
kinda describes it.
Dang it, I wish Grove
or Miami had a Pioneer
Woman.
If you havent heard the
name Ree Drummond,
youve not been reading,
watching TV, following
blogs, looking at photography, or shopping at
Wal-Mart, and you may
lose points on being a true
Okie.
Ree is becoming Oklahomas favorite girl, kind of
like Reba McEntire, but she
is doing it with a spatula
instead of a microphone.
Let me catch you up to
speed.
This is a true story of
how a ginger girl on her
way from California to

patti beth
anderson
Chicago to start a new
chapter, meets the love of
her life, a real life cowboy
in a bar in Oklahoma.
Read it for yourself,
everyone else has. Im talking about Rees New York
Times Best Selling book,
Black Heels to Tractor
Wheels. Ree transitioned
to ranch life calling herself
The Pioneer Woman
and her hero of the story,
the Marlboro Man (that
doesnt smoke.)
Her story and blogs
became fodder for everyone
in the Heartland, as she
shot adorable pictures of
her children and cows, and
stirred up comfort food in
the kitchen. People ate her
up. Fast forward to a wildly
popular TV show, her own
line of kitchenware sold at

Wallyworld, and now she

has opened The Mercantile
in downtown Pawhuska.
Will Rogers shouldve
thought of this for his
hometown, but Drummond has bought the old
mercantile and made it
her own.a restaurant
to showcase her brand of
cooking, a bakery and a
store for the serious and
not-so-serious cooks.
If you wanna be like
Ree, the colorful dishware,
linens and whimsical items
like cow-shaped creamers,
make us feel good. Like a
Grandmas house with flowers on the plates.
There are cast iron skillets, and blue jeans and
leather gloves and old
fashioned toys and bacon
flavored lip balm. Things
sparkle under crystal
chandeliers, and the help
wears sheriff badges and
the girls sport strands of
turquoise beads to identify
themselves.
Drummonds downtown
business opened 30 days
ago. They never dreamed
it would be so popular,
as folks line up down the
street to wait to get a table.
And, to stay in good graces

with the local fire marshal,

they even wait patiently
outside for shoppers to exit
to come into the store.
Ree floats in to hug
and sign autographs as
her Marlboro Man slips
around, (easily recognized
even without his hat) and
poses for pictures.
They have employed 160
people in their new business and given Pawhuskas
economy a huge lift when,
like other small towns, it
had been going down.
Good to Go with Patti
Beth took two motorcoaches last week to
spend the day playing in
Pawhuska. The locals are
friendly. The buzz of the
Mercantile was fun to be a
part of, and Ree was Oklahomas favorite girl.
From Black Heels to Big
Deal, we all need to be glad
she is our Oklahoma girl.

Patti Beth Anderson has more

than 20 years of experience in
the group travel industry taking
people all over the world. Her
motto is I return with the same
number of people I left with not
necessarily the same people, but
the same number nevertheless. So
no crankpots allowed She may
be reached at 918-786-3318 or
pb@goodtogowithpb.com.

Mullin It Over

A day that lives in infamy

n December 7, we
commemorated
the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor.
An attack that lasted just
110 minutes left 2,335 U.S.
service members dead and
another 1,143 wounded.
The next day in an
address to a Joint Session
of Congress, President
Franklin Roosevelt called
December 7, 1941: A date
which will live in infamy.
I believe those words still
hold true today.
After that surprise
attack, the United States
entered the Second World
War, sending 16.1 million
Americans into harms way
on two separate fronts.
Oklahomans were
called upon to serve in the
military, as well as at home.
Almost 5,500 Oklahomans
died in combat during
World War II. Nineteen of

MARKWAYNE MULLIN
STATE REP.

those Oklahomans received

the highest military honor
that the United States can
give, the Medal of Honor.
In the Second District,
Oklahomans did their part
for the war effort. They
mined lead for bullets and
produced gunpowder and
ammunition.
The effects of that war
can still be seen today in
the faces of our WWII
veterans.
We are losing our
greatest generation at an

alarming rate. According to the Department of

Veterans Affairs statistics,
only 620,000 people who
served during the war lived
to 2016, and that number
decreases every day. It is
up to us to recognize their
sacrifice during one of the
most pivotal times in our
history.
If they had not stood
up and answered their
countrys call, we would not
be the great nation we are
today.
Our generation also suffered a devastating surprise
attack on September 11,
2001. Since that day, we
have had troops stationed
around the world fighting
the War on Terror.
This Pearl Harbor Day,
we are reminded why we
must keep such a large and
powerful military. They are
what stand between us and
those who would destroy

our way of life.

It is up to us to train our
fighting men and women,
and equip them with whatever they need to defeat
our enemies. We must
empower our intelligence
community so that they can
identify threats before they
have the chance to carry
out attacks. We must learn
from the past so that it
doesnt repeat itself.
December 7, 1941 is a
date that will forever be
etched into the history
of our nation, and we
should never forget those
we lost on that day, and
in the bloody battles that
followed.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin
(R-Okla.) represents the second
district in the U.S. House
of Representatives. He can
be reached through http://
mullin.house.gov, and at 3109
Azalea Park Drive, Muskogee,
OK, 74401, 918-687-2533 or
202-225-2701