By Claire Rose
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| Ira Spieker (left) and Roy Elsenbroek (right) |
Although only a scant 50 people showed at the Northview veteran’s dinner, the cafeteria was abuzz with laughter and stories of the service and life after. Veterans from all different generations were present; the eldest of whom being Ira Spieker, a 100 year old man who served as a Marine for nearly 20 years, from 1944 to 1963.
Recounting the best parts of being a Marine during World War II, the Korean war, and Vietnam, Spieker said,
“The Marine Corps was never quite big enough, wherever I got transferred there’d be someone that I knew.”
And when it came to the worst parts of his service, the largest nuisance was difficult people, but even then, servicemen were constantly being transferred, so any trouble between two people was short lived.
Spieker was full of stories to share, such as being dangerously near atomic bomb tests and trespassing on beaches to collect oysters, but one of the best anecdotes was,
“He used to work on some of the electrical parts of the planes, but then he would have to be in the plane when they tested it out. That way they knew he’d fix it right,” Spieker’s son, Steve, said.
It should be no surprise that Spieker, who didn’t want to become an unknown face in a photo, or a “stranger in a box”, as he said it, has enough stories to fill a 255 page book that was published late last year titled From Iowa Soil to Atomic Debris to the Furniture City.
Roy Elsenbroek, a 72 year old veteran, who was sitting with the Spiekers, also had plenty of stories to tell. Though his wife, Karla, encouraged him to do so, he refused to write down his experiences in the Peace and Marine Corps. Elsenbroek said that the reason for his refusal was because,
“as soon as you write things down, you die,” a statement that Spieker clearly disproves.
Some of these yet-to-be-written stories include writing to president Lyndon B. Johnson during Vietnam on how to end the war, almost stepping on a landmine on his third day, and talking like Donald Duck to get out of ranks.
All of these experiences stemmed from the decision Elsenbroek made after going to a missionary college for six months and dropping out to become a Marine because he’d realized that nearly everyone at the college was a draft dodger.
That is when he decided to postpone his goal to serve God and serve his country along with so many others that risked their lives for everyone at home.
A deep respect for people like Spieker and Elsenbroek may be best expressed by Spieker’s son, who said, “[Those who serve] are more grounded and have a better perspective on life as a whole. They’ve experienced different worlds, different cultures. Somebody who stays in their own spot all their life, only sees their world; these guys see the whole world.”
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