Honoring Our Citizens – Doug Stevens Matt Nelson Doug Stevens is an interesting and determined man. He is 56, and moved to Montana in 2016, after spending most of his life in Florida. In August 2023 he suffered a major stroke. However, that hasn’t stopped him. He has owned Townsend Towing (406 287-0010) since 2019, and he still drives his tow truck.
Honoring Our Veterans – Michael Gustafson Matt Nelson U.S. Navy Submarine Warfare veteran Michael Gustafson served a total of 21 years on active duty in the Navy and the Navy Reserve. He served his first 11 years on 3 different submarine platforms, while most of his remaining years were as a Navy Reserve prior-service recruiter.
Honoring Our Veterans – Monte Schnur Matt Nelson LaMonte (Monte) Schnur was in Vietnam with the U.S. Army from November 1965 until April 1966. He spent his time there on water purification projects. He grew up in Wisconsin but came to Montana for a couple of years prior to being drafted, and was heavily involved with hunting, fishing, and trapping. When he entered the military his occupation was listed as a fur trapper, which is kind of funny.
Matt Nelson Air Force veteran Albert (Al) Barnett, Jr. is a native of Monticello, Minnesota, but has lived near Townsend since 1998.
Matt Nelson Clay Cantrell was born in Fayetteville, N.C. His Dad was with the 3rd Special Forces Group, and the time that Clay lived there was the beginning of his love for the military. He was raised in Drummond, MT. He grew up with his grandmother who was a great role model, and pretty much responsible for where he is today. He started college at Carroll College, in Helena, where he played football, as a Strong Safety then, transferred to Montana Western in Dillon and played football there. He had a career-ending injury playing football, so he doubled up on credits and finished his Business Administration degree. When he was working on his second bachelor's degree he had a position as the Admissions Supervisor at Montana Youth Challenge, which is a military structured program. He was there for six years and re-found his love for the military. He had a lot of great mentors there. He decided to enlist in the Army, and just under a year later he attended Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Helena for eighteen months. Once he received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, he was assigned to the 190th Combat Sustainment Battalion (CSB) in Billings as an S-2, Military Intelligence Officer. After completing his Basic Officer Leadership Course (OBC) he went down to Fort Huachuca, Arizona where he learned all about the Intelligence world. Clay is in the Montana Army National Guard and is an Active Guard Reserve (AGR) member. He held a position at Joint Force Headquarters as the Intelligence Officer and Aviation as the S-2 (non-flyer). In October 2019 Clay deployed with the aviation unit as the intelligence officer to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, and arrived home in October 2020. After that, he was given a command position with the Chemical Recon Detachment (CRD) of the 19th Special Forces Group. Clay commanded the unit for almost three years. After that time, he accepted the Assistant Professor of Military Science (APMS) position with Carroll College ROTC which is the officer in charge of Carroll College. The ROTC unit there is probably the second-best and biggest in Montana. He relinquished command at the CRD in 2023 and totally focused on the ROTC. Now he is enrolled in a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration through the University of Lousiville.
Honoring Our Veterans: Lawrence Brett Poe Matt Nelson Brett joined the U.S. Army in August 2008 and did his Basic Training at Fort. Knox, Kentucky and his Advance Infantry Training (AIT) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. His Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was Wheel Vehicle Recovery, which he did the rest of his time in the Army. This was the actual reason he enlisted. He liked working on trucks and vehicles and wanted to gain more experience doing it. After completing his AIT, Brett was stationed in Germany, and while there was deployed to Afghanistan for one year. Then he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington with a chemical company there. He was there for about a year and a half and was then transferred to Korea. After being there for a year, he moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and after that rotated to Kuwait with the same unit. When he left Kuwait he went back to Fort Lewis. He received his honorable/medical discharge in June 2018.
Honoring Our Veterans – Dean Nygaard Matt Nelson This story is about U.S. Navy veteran Dean Nygaard. He and his twin brother Dale were born and raised in Cut Bank, Montana and lived there until they both joined the Navy in 1975 at age 19. They were honorably discharged in 1979. From 1980 until 1985 Dean joined the Seabees/Naval Reserves and was stationed at the Sand Point Naval Station, located north of the (UW) University of Washington campus in the Seattle area. He and his wife Karen moved to Townsend two years ago.
Honoring Our Veterans: Kelly Morris
This article is part 2 of a two-part article.
Honoring Our Veterans: Mike Stapp (Part 2) Matt Nelson This is Part 2 of Honoring Our Veterans: Mike Stapp
Honoring Our Veterans: Mike Stapp
Honoring Our Veterans: Mark Boaz (Part 1) Matt Nelson This is Part 1 of a 2 part article honoring Mark Boaz.
Honoring Our Veterans: Cory Swanson
Honoring Our Veterans: Mark Boaz Matt Nelson
Veterans Day 2023 in Townsend Matthew A. Nelson
HONORING OUR VETERANS – MATHEW FOTH Matt Nelson Mathew Foth is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He joined the army right after high school. He served on active duty as a certified firefighter for three years, and two more years doing weekend duty in the Montana Army National Guard (MTARNG), stationed with the 1049th. He had wanted to become a firefighter while a young boy.
Stories of Honor: Jennifer Dalrymple Curt Synness for Lee Montana, September 23, 2023
Honoring Our Veterans – Chuck Carver Matt Nelson Chuck was born and raised in Fort Benton out on the Highwood Bench on a dry land farm. He had five brothers and one sister. His dad worked as a carpenter because he didn’t make enough on that farm to feed everybody. As a teenager, Chuck worked as an apprentice carpenter under his dad. After high school he had a football scholarship to Western Montana in Dillon, but realized after one year he wasn’t ready for college, so he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and was in until 1961. He went to Basic Training at Ft. Carson, Colorado, and after that was assigned to Ft. Rucker, Alabama for helicopter school, where he became a crew chief and worked on helicopters. Chuck had his private pilot license at 19, prior to entering the service.
Honoring Our Veterans – Gary “Ferg” Ferguson Matt Nelson Townsend Air Force Veteran Gary "Ferg" Ferguson was born in 1934 in Saskatchewan, Canada, but grew up in Montana. He spent 20 years and 3 weeks active in that branch of the military between 1953 and 1973. He was a flight crew chief on a lot of aircraft in England and served as a supervisor to four crew chiefs on F-86Ds Sabre jets, while stationed at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base near Manston, England, which is located near the North Sea.
Broadwater County Commissioner Darrel Folkvord grew up near Helena on a farm near the Spokane Bench, which lines up with the approach to the Helena Airport. His first adventure with aviation was when he was eight years old when he was able to fly in the back of a crop-dusters airplane to scout fields he was going to spray for his dad. That day was the start of his aviation career.
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