A veteran’s legacy: The unknown hero

VILLISCA - It was just another Veterans Day ceremony. 

As the middle school choir and band found its seats, seats in the Villisca gymnasium slowly started filling with students and community members. 

Up front in separate seating, veterans started filtering in, among them a group from the nearby Good Samaritan Society, including Veryll Magneson. 

The 97-year-old former Red Oak resident is one of the few remaining World War II veterans in the area, but Tuesday, he was just another veteran attending a seemingly ordinary Veteran’s Day ceremony. 

However, while few in the audience may have realized it, Magneson’s experiences in World War II, in which he received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in the famous Battle of Bulge, were anything but ordinary. In addition to the Purple Heart Magneson also received a Bronze Star, five Battle Stars and a Good Conduct Medal before returning home to Montgomery County following the war’s conclusion. 

Magneson’s experiences and story was recently immortalize by his nephew Dan Magneson, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Quilcene, Wash. He wrote an article about his uncle which was published online usfwspacific.tumblr.com/post/102021190825/veterans-day-visiting-with-a-member-of-the-greatest. “The stories stitch together a shared experience of how sleep usually came to a tired, dirty guy in a dirty place – a blasted house, a foxhole or when available, a vehicle; about being bombed at night near Verdun, France; seeing all the Jewish and Polish prisoners who had been killed by gassing; the simple joy of a pair of clean, dry wool socks; using their helmets for bathing, shaving and heating water; covering up with snow to keep warm; how the sky looked like the 4th of July while crossing the Rhine in Germany; driving by one of Hitler’s death camps in Germany and seeing starving people still there because they had no place to go – and an open common grave; about how life in Europe was for these soldiers like being a hobo, only carrying a rifle instead of a bindle.

“I was back in Iowa in May 2014 and stopped by to visit Veryll as he neared his 97th birthday.  He expressed a keen interest in fish hatchery work and asked a lot of questions concerning the Pacific salmon life cycle. 

“Finally, in a soft and subdued tone, I told him it would be an honor to write a Veterans Day tribute about his military service, if he was agreeable to discussing it. 

“The room fell quiet and it seemed like a lot of memories and emotions were swirling within him.  After a while, he said “Nothing you say will scare me.  I’ve been there.”

“I asked Veryll what he wished to say about his experiences during World War II.  He told me of having to live life just one day at a time when you are within a war zone; there were those major battles, but most were smaller-scale skirmishes and the bursts of furious activity could be followed by periods when time passed slowly and nothing seemed to happen. 

“I then asked him what he missed the most about the U.S.A., and he instantly replied that he loved our country and never felt secure over there. 

“When I next asked Veryll about the food, he thought the “C” rations in a can were palatable.  There weren’t actual cooks making meals very often, he said, and that the meals consisted most often of “C” and “K” rations eaten in the field, and “10 in 1” packages.

“Finally, I asked Veryll what made him the proudest of his service to our country.  He replied “Just being a part of it.”  He said that he wanted to go serve and couldn’t even think of not doing so.

“Later on during our visit, he told me something else:  “You can’t go back, but you can if you do it gradually.”  I’ve been around long enough to understand he was trying to impart some wisdom to me, but I haven’t yet lived long enough to fully grasp what it is.

“Still sitting on this log, I read the narrative that accompanies Veryll’s Bronze Star Medal:

“For heroic achievement in connection with military operations against an armed enemy near Esch-sur-la-Sure, Luxembourg, on 19 January 1945.  On the morning of 19 January 1945, an urgent call for ammunition came from the tank destroyer positions of Company C near Bavigne. The road to the company’s position was narrow, steep and mountainous and passed through Esch-sur-la-Sure.  Technician Fifth Grade Magneson, a headquarters company driver carrying the load of requested ammunition in his vehicle, observed that the latter town was under direct enemy artillery fire but, with utter disregard for personal safety, persisted in his efforts to get the essential ammunition through to the company. Driving through the shelled area, he was wounded on the side of his head by an enemy shell fragment.  Nevertheless, Fifth Grade Magneson courageously kept his vehicle on the road as he stopped to receive first aid treatment from personnel in the following truck.  He then heroically drove on until the mission was completed, following which he reported to the battalion aid station for treatment.  His courage, initiative and unusual devotion to duty reflect the highest credit upon Technician Fifth Grade Magneson and the armed forces of the United States.”

“This act of bravery had happened during the latter stages of the Battle of the Bulge; I found out from his brother that Veryll had volunteered for the duty of ferrying fuel and ammunition to the front lines.

“Please pause and reflect upon what Veterans Day is really all about. 

“And a big THANK YOU to Uncle Veryll and all the other noble men and women who have so gallantly, valiantly and unselfishly served our great country.”

The following is an excerpt from that article. 

“I … knew that Veryll had been in something called ‘The Battle of the Bulge.’ Only later did I learn how horrific Hitler’s last major offensive on the Western Front had really been:  ferocious fighting in bitter, brutally-cold weather.  Over 19,000 American lives snuffed out in that blood-stained snow.  Frozen bodies stacked like cordwood on the beds of trucks.

“After his discharge from the Army, he went back to Iowa and resumed farming, marrying and raising four daughters.

“I found out Veryll had been with the 818th Tank Destroyer Battalion.  He saw 310 straight days of combat, earning a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart, five Battle Stars and a Good Conduct Medal along the way. 

“On Veterans Day 2013, I read every one of the ‘Veterans’ Memories of World War II.’