10th Mountain Scout: Stephen Louis Paparich



 
By Liv Stecker


Louie Paparich graduated high school in Northport, Washington in 1942, a few months after the United States had joined the war effort in response to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Immediately following graduation, Louie took a job on the southern end of Lake Pend Orielle for a contractor building submarines at Farragut Naval Training Station, the recently established and second largest submarine training center in the United States at the time. It was during his time in Idaho that Louie heard about well-paying jobs constructing the Alaska-Canada highway from Alaska territory to the lower 48 states. Setting out from Seattle on a barge, 18 year old Paparich made his way to Skagway Alaska and then to Teslin in the Yukon Territory.



In late 1942, construction of the Alcan Highway was considered part of the war effort, and young Louie met a military service member serving on an army road engineering crew who asked Louie if he had registered with the selective service. Born and raised in Northport, Stephen Louis Paparich had never heard of the selective service or the consequences of not registering. Realizing that he would have more flexibility if he enlisted rather than wait for the draft, Louie hopped on a sternwheeler ship from Whitehorse to Dawson City where he bought an 18 foot boat for $5 so he could travel quickly to Fairbanks to register for the draft. Somewhere along the way, Paparich adopted a dog that crossed his path, and made his way 255 miles down the Yukon river, stopping at villages along the way to get directions and supplies. 


During a stop at the confluence of the Nation River with the Yukon, Louie ran across an old miner named Tom Phillips who had lived in the area since 1889 and was gravely ill. His companion begged the teenage Louie to take the sick man to Fairbanks for medical help in his $5 boat, but Louie instead left some of his provisions with the men and went ahead to send a floatplane back for the sick prospector, always wondering if the old man had survived. The float plane eventually got to Tom Phillips but they were unsuccessful in getting him to Fairbanks that way. He was moved by riverboat but died shortly afterward. 


Paparich found an army recruiter in Fairbanks where he quickly signed up for the draft. Fully expecting to be immediately deployed, Louie looked forward to the warm beaches of the South Pacific, away from the cold Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The recruiter, however, saw Louie as a candidate for a different mission. After a few questions, Louie had disclosed his experience as a skier and horseman, building skis in the rural Northport area and learning to ski on the nearby hills and working as a ranch hand in the summer. The recruiter filed away all of Louie’s information but told him that his work on the highway was needed for the war effort and directed him back to Teslin to continue his work with the civilian construction crew. Louie spent a month’s worth of wages to book a flight on a Ford Tri-motor plane back to Teslin and his old job driving trucks. Louie loved Alaska and wrote to family at home that he hated the thought of ever leaving the North. 


Paparich worked on the Alcan highway until the spring of 1943, when the army finally sent him to first basic training at Camp Roberts in California and then Fort Hale in Colorado, where the newly formed 10th Mountain Division was training the Light Infantry and one of the last mounted cavalry units for mountain warfare in the frigid and harsh climate of the European war theater. The mountaineering troops drilled on skis, snowshoes and horseback, honing survival and combat skills up against the backdrop of the rugged Colorado mountains. After several months at high elevation, the unit was moved complete with 180 head of horses to Fort Swift in Texas where they were trained and acclimatized for low elevation and high temperatures for several months. Exposed to the extremes of weather and terrain conditions, the 10th Mountain was ready for anything. 


During his training in Texas, Louie Paparich was joined briefly by his high school sweetheart, Kay Lael, a young girl with a sweet southern drawl from North Carolina who had moved to Northport with her family a few years earlier and fallen head over heels for the farm boy down the road. They were married in the chapel at Fort Swift and then Kay went back to North Carolina to live with family and wait out the war while Louie prepared to ship off. 


Louie, like many in his unit, had never been to sea before the troop crossing that winter, and to avoid the crowded bunks of seasick soldiers he found a place to sleep in the beams of the ship high above the head, where the air was fresh and the bunks weren’t stacked like sardines in a can. He never got caught in his unauthorized berth, and so Louie didn’t mind the trip as much as some others. 


It was January of 1945 when the 10th Mountain Division entered combat in the North Apennine Mountains in Italy. They were tasked with taking the five mile ridge of Mount Belvedere from the controlling German troops, and the first obstacle they faced was a 1,500 foot vertical ascent up the western stronghold, known to the Americans as Riva Ridge. The German’s were confident that the sheer face couldn’t be scaled and had minimal patrols in place, but the 10th Mountain rigged rope ladders in the night and surprised German forces, breaking through the line and taking Mount Belvedere after three days of intense fighting. 
 

Serving in the 10th Mountain Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Louie raised his hand when they asked for scouting volunteers. Although he didn’t know what he was signing up for, Louie made an excellent scout as he spoke Italian and his years hunting in the woods of Northeastern Washington made him adept in the Italian forests, although Louie would never have touted his valuable skill set, being above all things a humble man. Rose Paparich-Kalamarides says that her dad told her that the life expectancy of scouts were measured in minutes, rather than years, as they crept in front of their own troops to gather intelligence and report back. On one scouting mission, Louie’s partner set his rifle against a tree and left it when they crept to their next position. Knowing that a misplaced firearm was grounds for dishonorable discharge, when the scouts got back into camp Louie squirreled a rifle out of the unit commander’s tent to replace his partner’s and avoid reprimand. Neither soldier ever heard a word about the missing rifle from the officer. Louie liked to retell this story because it reminded him that outside of the reality of combat, boys will still be boys, applying mischievous ingenuity to get out of a tight spot. 


Paparich and his division continued to route the Germans out of Northern Italy, culminating in the final battle for the 10th Mountain at the Po River, where German Troops faced off against the Americans who crossed the river at Lake Garda and cut off the last escape route for Hitler’s army. Louie says that some of the bravest soldiers he saw in battle were the engineers who were laying temporary bridges across the water under heavy mortar fire while the rest of the unit sheltered in foxholes on the opposite side of the river. Louie lay flat on the ground near a foxhole, imploring the guys in it to make room for him only moments before a mortar landed square in the trench and killed all of the men crowded there. Louie’s daughter Rose says that her father said a Rosary for the men in that foxhole every day for the rest of his life. 

 


It wasn’t until Louie was dying of cancer that he began to open up about his experiences in the war to his children. At the urging of his daughter Rose, he related many anecdotes before his passing in March of 2000 at the age of 75. In addition to the stories he related, he left behind letters that he scrawled to his family at home, in the barely legible handwriting of a right-hand compelled southpaw. As time went on, Louie was able to talk about the horrors that he had seen as well as the humanity that he witnessed during his time with the army. After the battle of Mt. Belvedere, the plethera of German prisoners of war dictated the need for the digging of more latrines. As Louie supervised the POW soldiers digging, he witnessed the terror of some Germans and he realized that they thought they were digging their own graves. Once, when searching a German POW for weapons he found a beautiful pocket watch that had belonged to the man’s grandfather. Louie graciously returned it to the German soldier, telling his daughter later that the prisoners that he saw were guys that looked just like him. 



The bloody but successful campaign at the Po River transpired two days before fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was executed in a small Italian village and then hung by his feet in a public square in Milan in a retaliatory move by local communist forces. As Louie Paparich and the 10th Mountain Division marched back to their ship through Milan, he endured the gruesome sight of the deposed dictator and his mistress, swinging from the beams of a service station. Louie, like many of the soldiers he served with, bore witness to atrocities committed by enemy and even some friendly troops as the dehumanizing effect of the war ate away at moral standards. Later in life Louie would admonish his children and grandchildren about the horrors of war and would be strongly opposed to the military action in Vietnam and later engagements, like so many of his comrades in arms. 


 

The troops left Italy in the summer of 1945, destined for the planned invasion of Japan which was circumvented by Japan’s surrender in August of that year. The ship changed course and returned home, where Louie collected his young wife Kay and settled back in Northport where their first three children were born before they used the money he saved from his highway construction work to buy a large farm just outside of town. They had three more children while living on the farm and Louie and Kay went on to become pillars in the small community. Louie was the head of American Legion Post #158 in Northport for 50 years. Stephen Louis Paparich received two bronze stars on his discharge in November of 1945 after just over two years of service. 



Heroes and Horses - Bull Hill Guest Ranch



By Liv Stecker


Pete Ansaldo came to the United States from Italy in 1900, where he carved out a hard living in the mines in Butte Montana for a couple of years until he had the money to bring his wife and two daughters to America. They joined him, and shortly after in 1903, Pete left the dark mines to build a homestead in the rolling hills outside of the bustling mining town of Northport. With one Hereford bull named Curly, the formerly nameless hill overlooking the Columbia River was dubbed Bull Hill, and Pete, Curly, and his family worked to build a profitable ranch. They were joined in 1921 by a family friend from the old Country, Minot Guglielmino, who married Pete’s daughter Kate after working in the Lead Point Mine outside of Northport for awhile. Minot and Pete raised cattle on the sweeping land along the river while Minot and Kate’s only son, Don grew up in the barn that still stands on Bull Hill today. Don later married Kassie and they raised six children at Bull Hill, Jeanne, Susan, Don, Pete, Tom and Joe.


In 1981, Pete Guglielmino graduated from Eastern Washington University and returned to the family homestead at Bull Hill. He started offering guided hunts to friends while he took up the family trade of cattle ranching. In 1995, along with his brother Don, Pete launched Bull Hill Guest Ranch, to accommodate the growing demand for guided hunts and dude-ranch vacations that he was encountering. With ten horses, two wranglers and one cook, the ranch was soon busy from spring through fall, as visitors from up and down the northwest corridor caught wind of what was happening up at Bull Hill.


The guest ranch grew and expanded from the old barn and a few tents to a fully equipped cookhouse, guest cabins, and new barns. Rambling over a total of 50 thousand acres, both owned and leased, the endless hills and woods drew guests back to the ranch again and again. Pete, his wife Patsy, their children and several other family members came along over the years to help develop Bull Hill into the gathering place that it has become. “It’s always a battle to get people here for the first time,” says Tucker Guglielmino, Pete’s oldest son and the marketing director for Bull Hill, “because most people haven’t heard of Kettle Falls or Northport. But if we get them here once, we have no trouble getting them to come back.” Bull Hill specializes in making guests feel like part of the big extended family that operates the ranch. “We want people to feel like this is their spot.” Tucker adds, where they are known by name and can bring their friends for the same attention to detail. The wranglers get to know each guest and fit them to the right horse, making each visit personalized and memorable.


Near the turn of the millennium, one of Pete’s friends from college mentioned that the Navy SEAL teams were doing site surveys for a new rural sniper training range. Pete threw Bull Hill into the list of options and the Navy sent a helicopter and survey team out to check it out. The SEALs liked what they saw, and when Bull Hill underbid the competition nationwide, they were on board. Since then, SEAL teams have trained in the woods at Bull Hill twice a year, in the spring and fall, developing training curriculum that utilizes the best and most rugged landscape that northern Stevens County has to offer.


This year, Navy SEALs who participated in the very first training at Bull Hill came back as instructors. Tucker says that the contract gets renewed because Bull Hill offers something that you can’t find elsewhere. The SEALs often perform their training at Bull Hill immediately before deployment in the fall, and coming into the cookhouse at the end of the day they mingle with the Guglielminos and feel like a part of the American Dream. “They see the family and remember a little bit what they’re fighting for.” Tucker says. The sprawling ranch and the small town vibe where everybody knows your name is what it’s all about.


In 2015, Bull Hill was visited by a former Army Ranger who was looking for a place to host civilian long range shooting competitions. The guest ranch fit the bill perfectly and Dan Litzenberger, together with Pete and Patsy’s son Tucker Guglielmino created Bull Hill Training Ranch, and hosted a competition shootout in August of 2016 that was in support of the Darby Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the successful transition of Army Rangers to civilian life after service in the military. The shootout was a success, registration sold out and both professional and amateur shooters from all over the region and country, as well as corporate sponsors, came together for a weekend of fun and camaraderie to benefit an amazing cause.


Dan and Tucker are looking forward to hosting another competitive shoot at the ranch this spring, to benefit the foundation Freedom Has a Face, a non-profit committed to keeping the memory of fallen heroes alive in the support of their families and filling the gaps they left behind at home. These competitions as well as other events promise to be an ongoing benefit to both veterans and civilians alike as it provides a relaxing escape from the day to day for visitors and participants.




Pete and Patsy, along with their sons Tucker and Hunter continue to run Bull Hill with the help of Pete’s brother Joe, nephew Brent and a small army of local friends and family. Now armed with five full time wranglers, up to five cooks in the peak season, a full cleaning staff and office manager, the ranch books reservations years in advance for hunting season and families from the west side of the state looking for a rural get away that offers the complete experience. For more information about Bull Hill, check out their website BullHillGuestRanch.com or BullHillTrainingRanch.com.

Happy 241st birthday to the Few and the Proud!


By Liv Stecker


In 1775, the Continental Congress directed in a resolution that “two battalions of marines” should be raised to serve as protective landing forces and shipboard security for the foundling US Navy. The United States Marine Corp was formally established on November 10th, 1775, and newly commissioned captains, Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullen, recruited the early marines directly from the pubs of Philadelphia, enticing them with promises of adventure at the high seas over tankards of beer.


The first battle fought by these “sea soldiers” happened on March 3, 1776, when a force of 220 Marines under the direction of Captain Nicholas staged an amphibious assault on the beaches of Nassau in the Bahamas, capturing the two British Forts on the Island and a sizeable collection of heavy artillery.


After the revolution, the marines were briefly disbanded, until a scourge upon American merchants and traders emerged in the form of Barbary Pirates. In the first ever battle won by American Forces on foreign soil, the marines joined mercenary soldiers under the command of a naval officer and marched for 50 days across the desert in what is now Libya to overthrow the Barbary ruler in Tripoli, a successful campaign immortalized in the Marine’s Hymn with a nod to the “shores of Tripoli.”


Trained specifically for land invasions from the sea, the Marines were conspicuously absent from one of the most historic amphibious assaults in history, on D-Day when the Allied Troops invaded the beaches of Normandy. The assault, directed by Army Commanders, was executed by the army and navy, branches of the military that could provide the sheer numbers that the Marines couldn’t, especially considering the bulk of US Marines were already fighting in the Pacific. In reference to a unit of Marines aboard the USS Tennessee during the Normandy invasion, a journalist jokingly commented that they weren’t sent ashore lest headlines later read “Army Rangers saved by Marine”, a jab at the long running rivalry between the Army and the Marine Corps. There was, however, at the time, a contingency of Marines behind enemy lines in France working as observers for the OSS (pre-runner to the CIA and Secret Service) to assist with the allied paratrooper landings.


The Marine Corps have served the United States under the banner of fearless devotion and relentless conviction, maintaining the reputation of a fierce battle force on land and sea in all of our foreign wars. From Guadalcanal to Beruit, Iwo Jima to Fallujah, US Marines have paid a high price for their passionate pursuit of victory in conflicts throughout history as the few and the proud.