Grave hunting MacGyver style

Charles Soper graduated early
from the Colorado School of Mines
to join the army air corp.

Several years ago, when I was visiting my paternal grandparents in Denver, I asked about the person from whom my middle name and my father's name derives - Charles Soper - my grandfather's brother. Charles was a navigator on a B-17 during WWII and as the story goes was returning to England after a bombing mission and in the fog over the Channel, they hit another plane and everyone on-board was killed.

My grandparents said Charles was buried in Denver. I was surprised and asked why we never had gone to see the grave? They didn't know; by that afternoon we were driving around Fairmount Cemetery. We asked the main office for a map and they put an "x" on the map for where the plot was located. As we drove to the location, my grandparents made comments like, "This doesn't look right, the pine trees were tiny." Asking when they were last there, the said, "1945, for the funeral." Over 65 years later, trees had grow up.

As we walked around the location, we didn't see the grave. I got to noticing there was a line of markers and then none for a while. Looking at the map and hearing my grandparents say in the background it was between two pine trees, I decided "x marks the spot" and pulled out my Swiss Army knife and sunk it into the grass. (To this day I still don't know why I decided to do that) The blade hit something hard. It was like a scene from MacGyver! I cut a piece of sod and began to see a letter appear - S, then O - P - E - R! We pulled a bottle of water from the car and uncovered and washed the rest of the marker. It had sank 2 inches below the grass. My grandparents contacted the cemetery and the marked was lifted to regulation height.

As we approach the 71st anniversary of VJ Day, we must never forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice and the families who carry the heavy hearts for the nation. It is to those who have worn the uniform that I salute.

Remembering WWII: A frontline soldier’s perspective

Norman Shetley had just completed his first year of college at Western State in Gunnison when he received his draft notice in July 1943. Norman trained in Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky prior to landing in Marseille, France in October 1944 with the 449th Armored Field Artillery of the 14th Armored Division.

Norman Shetley holding the Bronze Star he was awarded for
meritorious service and devotion to duty while under enemy fire.
2015 Soper/Delta County Historical Society

After landing in Marseille, Norman said his first night was spent in a bombed out warehouse on the harbor. One evening, Norman was driving a jeep near the harbor and noticed three French-Moroccan soldiers running towards the jeep. The soldiers were attempting to kill him and steal the jeep. Shetley said, “I hit the gas and rapidly shifted into second gear!” Shetley remembered his fellow soldiers saying, welcome to life on the frontlines.

Shetley spent seven months on the frontlines, participating in the Battles of the Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, and the Rhineland. The winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest in modern history. “We didn’t have adequate footwear or cold weather-wear and I only had one shower the entire time I was on the front,” Shetley recalled.

One night, Shetley and a couple of other soldiers were ordered to take a mile and a half of wire to a village just inside the Siegfried Line for the forward observer. Norman ran the wire into a designated house and while he was inside, the Germans began shelling the area.

Norman Shetley standing on the Siegfried Line in 1944.
Photo courtesy Norman Shetley Collection

“The two other guys in the jeep got nervous when the artillery began shelling around us, so they drove off. I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I opted to run down the road. Shells began landing near me on the left, then the right, as I ran and I realized the Germans were zeroing in on me! I couldn’t think why would they want to kill one little lone soldier using the artillery! There was a German zig-zag trench and I dove in. Another shell landed nearby and lifted me about a foot out of the trench! I played dead and the Germans moved on to other targets,” Shetley recalled. This incident contributed to Shetley being awarded the Bronze Star.

Shetley went on to participate in the liberation of Moosburg and Hammelburg prisoners of war camps and was an early witness to view Dachau and Hitler’s retreat, known as Eagle’s Nest.

Shetley returned to Delta County after the war and became a teacher and later a jobs councilor with the Department of Labor.

________________________________________

M. Soper, "Remembering WWII: A frontline soldier’s perspective" Delta County Independent (Delta, Colo.) 11 Nov. 2015, pg. A8