Springfield South Dakota Veterans
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      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
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      • Donald Dempster
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      • Clarence Vanderlei
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      • Robert McCollum
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      • Daryl Heusinkveld
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      • Lee Merchen
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    • My Week in Hue City
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      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
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      • James "Uke" Uken
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The Rest of the Story

1/26/2020

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Old Country!

After being part of the defeat of the German army in Europe, Lawrence Namminga Sr. pulled off an unimaginable feat by obtaining a jeep with five days leave and the proper clearances and driving 390 miles from Grafental, Germany to his ancestral home of Friesland in northern Holland. There, he was received as a heroic American soldier and was able to connect with many close relatives.  It was an unexpected joyful reunion at the end of a great war.  During his short stay, Lawrence, with his jeep, was able to aid his relatives in transporting relatives to the service for the family patriarch, killed by the Germans.  The five days was a fitting end for Lawrence to a great war and an adventure that would live big with him for the rest of his life.






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Springfield Was There

1/19/2020

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By Dick Martin
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Holocaust II

1/12/2020

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By Dick Martin
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In the early part of WWII, to free up resources in its Battle of Britain, Hitler formed a pact with Russia to neutralize his Eastern front while he dealt with Britain.  Hitler hated the Communists but needed the extra resources on the western front to deal with the Brits.

After Hitler gave up on the Battle of Britain, he re-concentrated his efforts on his eastern front by reneging on his agreement with Stalin and invading Russia.  Hitler hoped to solicit help from Japan by declaring war on the United States bringing Japan into the war to help against Russia.  Not believing Hitler would double cross him, Stalin was visibly shook and “dropped out” for a time; only to come back with a vengeance against the Wehrmacht.

As the German soldiers entered Eastern Europe and Western Russia, they instituted a rape, pillage, and plunder campaign that would unwittingly come back to haunt them later in the war.    It never occurred to the German soldiers that they could see the same lands again as they retreated back across the same territory, full of anti-Germans wanting to take revenge on them for their bad conduct.

As the Wehrmacht made its inexorable march across western Russia towards Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad, the Russian people instituted a “scorched earth” policy performing miracles in moving their industrial factories and government, brick by brick farther East out of harm’s way, and destroying everything else.  In the meantime, Stalin was throwing his manpower advantage at the Germans, causing the Germans to retreat back across land they had already conquered. The Russians and other anti-Germans were waiting for them.  German soldiers soon found it healthier to surrender to the West than to Russia.

After the war, Stalin, in concert with other Communist subordinates, planned to expel all ethnic Germans from their homes east of the Oder and lands which from May 1945 fell inside the Soviet occupation zones.  Twelve to 14.6 million Germans fled into Allied occupied Germany. The expulsions and flight of ethnic Germans resulted in a heavy price for the Germans, estimated at a death toll of 500,000 to 3,000,000.  



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My Week in Hue City

1/5/2020

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By Dick Martin
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For Dan Mejstrik's full biography, see the Sunday Feature published July 28, 2019.
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    Arlis Namminga Wozniak
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This web page is a work in progress. It has been created through the donated efforts of Laura Genant Martin, Dick Martin, and Jim Hornstra. When Laura was made aware of what we needed, she took the initiative to research and educate herself on how to create a web site to identify, respect and honor the military veterans in Springfield. The web site had to be easy to navigate and had to provide the viewer a method of providing feedback. Most of the written material has been provided by Dick Martin over the past couple of years with some important contributions from others, i.e. Jim Kirk.  Jim Hornstra has been the reliable source as he has been the collector of information concerning Springfield Veterans and has provided Laura much of what has gone into the web site.
  • World War I
    • Veteran Photos
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Lawrence Namminga
      • Fred C Hornstra
      • Chuck Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • John Palsma
      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Springfield Was There
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Jake DenOuden
      • Biographies K-Ma >
        • Bernard Kastein
        • James Kirk
        • Leonard Lange
        • Ted Lindeman
        • Clarence Ludens
        • John C. Ludens
        • John "Jack" Martin
        • Richard "Darby" Martin
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
      • Ode Odens
      • Lawrence Owens
    • Biographies P-S >
      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
      • Virginia McClure
      • Donald McMillan
      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
  • Cold War
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Robert McCollum
  • Vietnam War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
  • Middle East Wars
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • James "Uke" Uken
  • Army National Guard
    • Veteran Photos
    • Rapid City Flood
    • Japanese Internment