Class News

Today's Featured Biography

 
Jerry Struthers

Greetings to my fellow classmates


Where did the time go to? In some respects seems like it wasn't that long ago we were in the halls of Old North High and than it seems so long ago. I attended the U of MN college of Agriculture and received my BS in Animal Science and Dairy Science. Started grad school the next year, but the toll of working, marriage and lack of a clear vision of my goals resulted in my draft into the service. Facing the draft I signed up for the Army. Ultimately I essentially volunteered for Vietnam as well.


In the fall of 1967 I was assigned to an artillery unit on the DMZ. It was an Army unit working with the 3rd Marine Divison out of Dong Ha. It was supposed to be all Marines in the I Corp, but they had taken so many casualties on their guns. Spent a few months right on the DMZ at Gio Linh and then pulled back to a new fire base to the west of Ke Sanh and Con Thien. Jan 31 was the Tet Offensive and our base was bombed by planes. We lost one bunker with 16 casualties. The village at the junction of the driveway with Highway 1 also took casualties. The battery commander, the medic, and myself(security) went down to the village the next morning to render aid. Till our visit we did not know if China had entered the conflict or not as everything was in chaos due to all the attacks. The villagers showed us bomb fragments that carried US markings. I extended my time in country as I did not want to serve anymore time in the military then I had to. Hard decision to make as we were getting hit hard at times. My wife and mother were not happy at all with my decision to say the least. My departure was quite timely as the unit was overrun about 4 months after I left. My section lost all but one man to death or injuries. The unit was shipped back to the states as they had lost FDC(my section) and two of the guns. The unit I was in was Self Propelled. I think at that time their were only two groups of Self Propelled artillery in Nam.


After arrival back in the states my wife and I had our first child the following year. Wendy was born in 1970 followed by Jim in 972, and William in 1974. We have four grand kids that we get to spend alot of time with and somewhat spoil.


I worked for Dairy Fresh Foods or their predecessor companies for 30 years and retired when I got my 30 years in. I would later work for the US govt in the NRCS and retired about 4 years ago.


My wife and I have lived in Otsego, MN since my return from Vietnam on a small hobby farm. We enjoy going to basketball games. My two sons played basketball in Elk River, with my oldest attaining all conference status in the North Suburban conference. Now my wife and I get to attend grade school and junior high games for two of our grandsons. This late spring and early summer we enjoyed watching my middle grandson play in AAU basketball. We have attended a lot of Braham basketball games the last 8 or 9 years, about 20 games a year. Braham was the school I attended before moving to North just after the Junior year had started.


Great that we have this web site. I would encourage all to post their profile. I know I have enjoyed reading all of them.

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