Veterans come together for second annual Havre Stand Down

Veterans, service groups and sponsors came together Friday for the second annual Hi-Line Veterans Stand down at the District 4 HRDC Building in Havre.

The purpose of the Stand Down was to help veterans with needs and give them access to representatives from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Montana Veterans and job service associations and access to health screenings, a service provided by Bullhook Community Health Center employees.

The local Stand Down event was spearheaded by Scott Prindiville, a Havre veteran. Prindiville, a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the initial idea was to organize an event for VFW. But then others who weren't members of VFW wanted to get involved. So the idea and the invitation expanded. Prindiville then consulted with a group of people in Great Falls who organize the Stand Down there for ideas on putting on the event in Havre.

"Then we started contacting different organizations to see who wanted to be part of it," Prindiville said.

Among the groups represented at the event were Havre Job Service, Montana National Guard, family programs, the public defender's office, Bullhook Community Health Center, Veterans Affairs, Homeless Veterans Advocates, VA Clinic giving flu shots, Great Falls Combat Veterans Center, American Legion, Salvation Army and stenographers who were taking down oral histories for Library of Congress.

Cindy Prindiville said she was asking vets specific questions designated by the Library of Congress. One of the men she talked to was Calvin Burr, a World War II veteran who fought in the Pacific Ocean battles.

Burr, or "Caliber" as he's known, has been in Havre ever since he finished his stint as a U.S. Marine.

"I was a junior in high school when I quit school at 17 and joined the Marine Corps. I just thought it was the right thing to do," Burr said. "They loaded us aboard a ship to take us overseas."

In Havre, Burr, along with being involved in multiple other community events and groups - he was instrumental in assembling the Festival Days float that carried the veterans - was the Bear Paw Junior Rifle Club coach for 40 years. The discipline and skills taught to young people by the club are invaluable, Burr said.

Lowell Skunberg of Chester and Bruce James of Havre were two veterans who had just met 20 minutes earlier.

Camaraderie, they said, was an important aspect of what the event offered.

"That's the cool thing about veterans. It's almost like a brotherhood. If you're a veteran, man, you can relate to the other veterans," Skunberg said.

Skunberg, a Marine, served in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 1971. He looked back on his military service as a time he enjoyed, he said.

James said he served at an air base in Idaho during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He said he remembers loading nuclear bombs into airplanes. Pilots told him not to worry about about the bombs exploding. It would take more than dropping one to detonate it. They wouldn't do anything until the bomb was armed, he was told.

"We had no idea how they worked," James said.