PORT ANGELES — These old soldiers can talk about it now, the horror of combat, the grief and the fear.
When they came home from World War II and the Korean conflict — even from the atomic bomb tests in the Nevada desert — they kept silent about what they’d seen.
Mostly, they wanted to forget.
“We found out there was some trauma that our medical people didn’t know how to deal with back then,” said Edward Claplanhoo.
Claplanhoo was one of about 35 veterans of the Army’s 369th Engineer Amphibious Support Regiment who gathered Sunday morning at Veterans Park on Lincoln Street.
The group meets every year to recall the days when they were stationed at Fort Worden, Fort Flagler and Hudson Point in Jefferson County before they shipped out overseas.
Some went to Thule, Greenland. Others went to France.
Later, some fought in “the forgotten war” — Korea.
Claplanhoo, a Makah tribal member from Neah Bay, said his fellow veterans are now more willing to talk about all of their experiences, not only the good ones.
“It’s like an AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] circle,” he said.
“To be able to benefit, you have to talk.”
Ranks thinning
Last year and the year before, the 369th gathered in Minnesota. Next year they’ll meet in Indiana.
But each year, fewer men come to the reunion.
John Singhose of Joyce read the names of 19 men who’d died since the last gathering.
“That’s quite a few,” Singhose said.
But he said this year’s loss was about average for recent years.
Chaplain Bill House of Mobley, Mo., led the vets and their spouses in a brief prayer in front of the Liberty Bell replica in the park.
“We are recognizing our comrades who are passed from us,” he prayed, “who are now comrades with you.”
Some of the men stood straight. Others were stooped. One carried an oxygen bottle. Another used a walker. Silver hair was common.
“We’re proud,” said Claplanhoo.
“We’re proud that we served our country. We’re proud that we can get together.”
Together with their spouses, they numbered about 70, staying at the Red Lion Hotel.
They’d have loved to meet at Fort Worden State Park, but fees to use the buildings were too expensive, said Singhose, an organizer of this year’s reunion.
The 369th in 1952 was sent to Yucca Flat, Nev., to witness atomic bomb tests called Exercise Desert Rock 4.
“A whole company were guinea pigs,” said Claplanhoo.
He said he worries that some of the men have died of radiation-generated illnesses.
Following the Sunday morning memorial service, Singhose hosted the men and their wives at a barbecue on his “stump ranch” near Joyce.
There, said Claplanhoo, the talk would be light — mostly.
“We’ll honor all of the people who came back and are willing to share their experiences,” he said, “the good and the bad.”