Gene Richards Shanley (1925–2019), born and raised at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, lived in Crawford until 1951. Named after Doc Richards, who delivered him and later officially amended his birth certificate enabling him to enlist in World War II at the young age of 16. His life was deeply intertwined with a family legacy of military service and resilience.

His parents, John Frances (Frank) Shanley (1896–1970) and Ollevia Jane (Olive) Cameron Shanley (1900–1990), raised their family in western Nebraska. Frank was not a military veteran but trained horses for the U.S. Army Quartermaster Remount Depot and dogs for the K-9 Corps, earning a reputation as an “animal whisperer.” He also worked as a plumber at the fort and in the surrounding area. Olive industriously worked as a registered nurse, serving patients both at Fort Robinson and in Crawford. Together, they instilled values of hard work and perseverance in their five children.

Gene’s extended family had a long history of service. His paternal uncle, James Joseph Shanley (1894–1986), born in Chadron, Nebraska, was raised on ranches in Cherry County. Jim served in World War I from 1918–1919 and later aboard the Navy Ship Bolivar during World War II. Between his tours, Jim worked in California gold mines and trained as a carpenter. After World War II, he settled in Seattle, Washington, where he worked as a farmer and carpenter.

Gene’s maternal grandfather, Daniel Webster Cameron (1864–1938), was born aboard a ship traveling through the St. Lawrence River before settling in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula and later in Nebraska. Daniel joined Company M, 3rd Regiment of the Nebraska Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War. He fought alongside the Cuban Rough Riders and during the Philippine Insurrection, earning a medical discharge and pension for his efforts. He eventually retired with his wife to the Nebraska Soldiers and Sailors Home in Burkett, Nebraska.

Gene grew up surrounded by stories of service and sacrifice. At age seven, his fascination with aviation blossomed after persuading his father to secure him a plane ride, cementing his passion. Gene also spent hours training with soldiers at Fort Robinson, shaping his survival skills and preparation for military life. He enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1944.

As a ball turret gunner and assistant navigator with the 389th Bomber Unit of the 586th Squadron of the 8th Air Force, Gene flew 55 missions in B-24’s across the African and European theaters during World War II. He survived being shot down, captured twice, and escaping twice—one escape involved tying himself to the underside of a supply truck. After the war, Gene married Jewell Stetson from Crawford, whose maternal family had ties to Soest, Germany—a target from his first mission. Gene later discovered he had unknowingly bombed a target that only a day earlier, housed POW Gordon Pinney from Whitney, Nebraska, a lifelong friend he met after the war.

Private Ralph E. Stamen entered the service on April 13th, 1942 and after basic training was selected for special training in engineering with 110th Battalion. This group was part of the U. S. forces left the states on July 5th, 1943 for Kiska, Alaska where the men made air strips and did other construction work. 

In November, 1943 the unit was transferred to the Hawaiian islands and in October, 1944. He was also a top part in the invasion of Leyte. During the month, the Japs bombed the ammunition dump containing one-third of the supplies for Leyte and it was for his bravery that Ralph Stamen received the soldier medal and citations quoted in part as follows; “When enemy bombs struck an ammunition and fuel dump, private Stamen voluntarily with reckless disregard for his personal safety, operated a caterpillar dozer amongst the exploding arms and ammunition and assisted in the clearing of the area. His heroic efforts contributed in bringing the fire under control which saved many lies and prevented further destruction of material."  After Leyte  was made secure, the seventh division including the 100th engineers, was in the Okinawa invasion and Stamen was one of the first to go ashore. In June he left his outfit, and was placed in a hospital in Hawaii and July 29th, 1945, he landed in the United States on October 23rd, 1945. 

Steve is a graduate of Crawford High School in 1968. He enlisted into the US Navy and in March of 1969 attended Basic Training at San Diego, California. In September 1969 he was stationed at Buxton, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. From 1971-1972 he was stationed at New Port, Rhode Island. While in Rhode Island he was assigned to the USS Hartley and traveled to Porto Rico and other locations and returned to Rhode Island. The USS Hartley was decommissioned once it returned. He then was assigned to the USS Fisk.

Steve was discharged in December 1972. While traveling back to Crawford, he and his wife rang in two New Year’s, the first was in the Eastern Time Zone, then the second was as they crossed into Central Time Zone when he arrived at his brother’s home in Omaha.

While in the National Guard, he had normal monthly drills and two-week drill during the summer months. He was called to duty to assist with crowd control and road closings and safety/security during the Fire of 1989 and Flood of 1991. Also, while in the Guards, he had three different MOS’ which were truck driver, ammo, and cook. 

Steve is married to Karen (Norman) Green, they have three children Jessica (Wayne) Espinoza, Mandy (Justin) Bosak, and Phaedra Green, six grandchildren, one great granddaughter and a second great grandchild due in September of 2026.

​​Steve is extremely proud of his two grandsons Marc Espinoza and Carson Bosak for their willingness to serve their country.  Our community is proud of all those who served! Thank you!

 I joined the Army National Guard in January of 1994 and left in August of 2004.  I was deployed to Iraq in April of 2003 and got back from that deployment in April of 2004.  I was set to complete my enlistment in January of 2003, but when they activated our unit the stop/loss procedure went into effect and I was reissued my gear and was told to prepare for deployment.  In Iraq I spent the first few months in Camp Arifjan Kuwait getting acclimated to the heat and running missions into Iraq with the 1057 lt/med truck company and other units from Nebraska.  From there our unit split up and I was sent with a platoon of soldiers to Hillah where we built a camp.  This was a central location about an hour south of Baghdad.  From there we delivered supplies to camps across southern Iraq and occasionally northern Iraq.  It was difficult being miles away from home, leaving my first job teaching mid year and leaving my wife and newborn baby.  I had a guitar sent to me and made friends playing it.  Our camp in Hillah was full of international coalition soldiers and a Mongolian soldier and I often played guitars with neither of us speaking each other's language.  Another soldier from Hungary that did speak English also came over to our tent often to play and sing songs.  In our down time we made up games to occupy our minds and talked about home.  When we weren't on missions we were filling sandbags or taking soldiers to Babylon to walk through the ruins and palaces.  As I look back on my deployment experience personally I think Charles Dickens said it best in his book A Tale of Two Cities-   "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,"

Only eight of the boys I’d gone over there with, were left. The rest had been killed or wounded. More men were killed over there. “ They called it a police action. That was the word they kept using. But it was a war.” Keal Rising said the veterans who fought in Korea are often ignored simply because war was never declared. 

Keal spent his 21st birthday on the ship headed for Korea. He and his squad landed at Posan on August 1, 1950. Three days later they broke through the perimeter and were fighting on the front lines. For the next seven months, the squadron struggled across the mountains and jungles of Korea. 

“ I figured once that we’d walked across the country five times.” Rising said. “They gave me a M-1 rifle and a BR. That Browning Automatic was just too heavy to carry. I left it behind as soon as I could.” 

If his squadron wasn’t marching across some of the roughest terrain in the world, they were generally holed up in a fox hole. Sometimes there wasn’t time to carefully “choose” a location for the hole. 

“If you didn’t keep your head down, you got it shot off.” Rising said. “Those Korean guys were sniping, son-of-a-gun. There was always a bunch of sniper fire. We dug one set of holes on a side hill. It was during the rainy season. The water ran down the hill and filled up the holes. You used your helmet to bail water.  There was this kid with me, he was just 15, he lied about his age, I’d bail and he’d shoot, then we’d change jobs.” 

At times the soldiers would find themselves totally without food, a C-ration a day was considered a banquet.  When winter set in, the supply sergeants discovered their order for warm winter clothing had been sent somewhere else. 

For several weeks, the soldiers fought without gloves, coats or even warm boots. Rising said the arrival of a supply truck full of snow packs and winter coats boosted what had been very low morale. 

“Even during the rainy season, you didn’t take your boots off.” Rising said. “We were in one continuous fight. If you’d take your boots off, you might have found yourself running over the hills barefoot.” 

Rising said he’s always felt General Douglas McArthur’s removal from the Korean command was totally unjustified. “We had those Koreans pushed clear out of the country when the Chinese came in. They just kept bringing in wave after wave of them. McArtur was trying to whip them and get out. For some reason the government didn’t want that so we just kept fighting and going back and forth across that country.” 

“You died if you didn’t have a buddy to help you out.” Rising said. “One night we dug in after dark., We weren’t dug down very deep. About three or four in the morning we could hear them gooks crawling around a nearby bean field. We’ pop rifles out of the holes and spray the bean field with gunfire. The next morning there was a man laying just a few feet from our bunker. The guy in the next hole had shot him.”

Knowing who the enemy was wasn’t always easy. Many of the villagers were guerrilla fighters for North Korea. Ambushes were a common occurrence and usually happened when they were the least expected. 

“You couldn’t trust anyone.” Rising stated. “The soldiers lived right in the villages. They knew where and who we were. We didn’t.” “Behind the lines, everyone became a medic, everyone was a chaplain and if the squad was lucky, someone was a comedian. “You couldn’t take things too seriously. If you had a joker in your bunch, life was a bunch easier. I’ve watched that show “MASH”. I think they showed things purty fair. If you didn’t laugh, you’d start bawling. Those that did that never stopped."  

Gerald Wayne Lux was born on August 2, 1924 in Sioux County Nebraska. He was the oldest child of Carl Jacob Lux and Nona Lucille (Chitty) Lux. Gerald attended school in Whitney, often riding his horse to school. The janitor was kind enough to let Gerald in the school to warm up by the boiler on cold mornings, which earned him the nickname “Lucky.” 

After high school graduation, Gerald enlisted in the Navy. He knew that he would likely be drafted and wanted to avoid the marching that was involved in serving in the army. He was interested in serving in the submarine service but was too tall to qualify. After basic training in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he was trained as a radioman, Gerald spent most of his 3 years of duty aboard the seaplane tender USS Chincoteague in the Pacific theater. He visited Hawaii as well as several other Pacific Islands during this time. His tour duty includes the following: carrying airplane parts and personnel, Pearl Harbor, Unk Voyage, Kwajalein Afoll, Enewetak, Majour, Tarawa, Ran onto the rocks at Tunituti, Espiritas Santo, Guaclolcanal Tuagi, Treasure Island, picked up flyers down, D Day +1 Guan to Iwo Jima where he saw the flag raised on Mount Suribachi (Hot Rock) He also picked up people that we shot down or those ships with engine trouble at sea. 

Gerald kept a diary throughout his time at sea and is a great tribute to his duty served. He sent many letters and pictures home to his family. The scrapbook that was put together is a great tribute to his service for our country.

After his discharge from the Navy, Gerald returned to Crawford where after a short try at college he worked for his stepfather Charls Ferguson. Gerald worked at a variety of jobs including as a section foreman for the CB&Q Railroad, at the Crawford sale barn, and as a salesman for Moorman’s Feeds. These jobs supplemented the income from farming and ranching. The agricultural operations included raising cattle as well as occasionally pigs or sheep. There were also milk cows until after all the children had left home.