Carson Column: Veterans Day a time to remember those who fought

Recent Carson City arrival Kirk Strobel wore his hand-painted leather jacket Saturday in honor of Veterans Day.

Strobel, who moved to Carson from Wisconsin last summer, was a Navy corpsman attached to the Marines in Lebanon on Oct. 23, 1983, when suicide bombers attacked the barracks, killing 241 service members.

"It was real early in the morning when the bomb went off," he said. "I just happened to be heading to the latrine at the time, when it went off."

Kirk has a little difficulty sharing what happened. The relationship between Navy corpsman and Marines is a special one. The corpsmen, who are medics, are the people responsible for tending to injured Marines in the field.

"It's hard to explain. It's just really intense," Strobel said. "I was with that detachment. Those were my guys that I lost. It was real hard for me to get over that."

As a corpsman, Strobel was busy trying to help the wounded.

"When it went off, the screams you heard ..." he said. "People were yelling, 'corpsman up, corpsman up,' but I can't get to everybody, and that bothered me. You want to help everyone and you can't."

The back of Strobel's jacket reads "Forget the war. Remember the warrior." The design on the back is familiar to any sailor who has been on deployment in the Western Pacific.

In militarese, these deployments are known as WestPacs. One of the things virtually every sailor I knew purchased in the Phillippines was a WestPac jacket.

They were too light to make even a good windbreaker. But the enterprising people of the Phillippines would have them ready to sell whenever a battle group returned from its adventures.

Kirk took the dragon design and had it handpainted on the back of a leather jacket in 1999, along with the slogan.

He was in an accident a couple of years back which required surgery. He also had to move away from Wisconsin.

"I can't stand the cold winters any more," he said. "I've got a lot of screws and rods in my back.

His mom and stepdad moved to Nevada and, after the accident and resulting legal wrangling to get his settlement from the guy who hit him, he decided to follow.

"I've made a few friends out here," he said. "I'm a member of the HOG chapter. I've still got my bike and I get out and ride a little bit."

I was reading the story about charges in connection with the Tonopah bus crash and was shocked to read that Patty Cafferata was the district attorney for Esmeralda County.

So, I called. Guess who picked up the phone?

It was Patty.

The former Nevada Appeal columnist and the daughter of Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich was appointed to be Esmeralda's district attorney on July 18.

The district attorney before Patty was ex-Douglas assistant district attorney Harry Kuehn. He decided to go back to being the tiny county's public defender, leaving Patty to run her third prosecutors office.

She was appointed to be the Lincoln County DA and was elected to serve in Lander County.

"So, have law books, will travel," I joked with her.

She agreed, saying she was becoming an expert in rural criminal behavior.

I followed a coyote down Curry Street near Telegraph the night of the Brewery Arts Center beer tasting. He sauntered south down the street and then stopped on a lawn near the corner and watched as I passed by. I think he was waiting for his date before attending the annual fund-raiser for the BAC to slake his thirst.

Two dogs, bull terriers or something related, went running down Hot Springs Road on Friday chasing one another down the street along the line of cars. They then turned south and ran across the street and down the northbound lanes of Carson Street - without concern for the traffic, or anything else for that matter.

Nevada Appeal staffer Teya Vitu is moving on after four years in Carson City. Those who've encountered Teya through the newspaper, his stint on the radio or his patronage of the arts, should not be surprised to learn that he handed me a press release about his departure.

He is going to work as the business reporter for the Tucson Citizen, a Gannett newspaper.

According to the press release, Teya will miss Carson City when he has to leave on Thursday.

"That will be a sad day," Teya said. "Carson City is the best place I'm ever going to live. I will miss having winter for seven months of the year."

Vitu's other duties at the Nevada Appeal included a year of writing special projects and seven months writing about Lyon County. This year Vitu's curious title was "capital city reporter," which he interpreted as meaning writing about whatever he wants in Carson City.

"Covering Lyon County was my favorite assignment in 13 years as a journalist," Vitu said. "People in Lyon County were so eager to talk to me. Plus the county is still in its formative years, so writing about a new supermarket or a sewer system is a big deal. They are still inventing the wheel - five different ways."

On his off time, more often than not Vitu could be found hiking in the Sierra or attending some theater performance. He was a regular at Western Nevada Musical Theatre Co. shows as well as musical productions by Carson High School and many shows at the Brewery Arts Center.

"I've gone to shows at many of the major arts centers in this country and Europe," Vitu said. "Carson City does a phenomenal job, especially considering the small size of the city. The quality here certainly tops Reno."

We'll miss Teya, too.