The Freedom Rock

 

Taking a break from our Memory Lane photos to share with you “The Freedom Rock.”

Painting of the Hamburg Freedom Rock was recently completed by artist Ray Sorensen. Funding for the project, which is on display in Hamburg City Park, was provided by the city of Hamburg.  (Taken from The Hamburg Reporter)

The following article is from The Freedom Rock Facebook page.

The Fremont County Freedom Rock in Hamburg, Iowa is complete! This rock sits right in the middle of a very nice town park with sidewalks leading to it from all directions. Hamburg is located in the southwest corner of the state very close to both Nebraska and Missouri.

I loved the big flat sides of this rock and decided to feature a big American flag rolling down the front side.

Around each of the other sides are various Veterans from around the county and also John Fremont who the county is named for.

Starting with Major General Fremont, he was a military officer, explorer, and politician who became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. Although Fremont is often portrayed as controversial and somewhat contradictory by historians he is the first commanding general who recognized the toughness and ability of Ulysses S. Grant and promoted him to commander at a strategic base.

PO3 Harold V. Briley was in the Navy and was killed in action aboard the USS Indianapolis when it sank leading to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. After delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. Only 317 survived.

SSgt. Charles J. Hein from Sidney, Iowa in Fremont County was serving with Recon Team Vermont, Command & Control Central (CCC), MACV-SOG, 5TH Special Forces Group, USARV when he was accidentally injured by white phosphorous grenade. SSGT Hein and other members of his unit were getting ready to go out on maneuvers and they were getting the grenades packed. The grenade SSGT Hein was handling fell on the concrete floor and cracked. When he saw that the fuse had been detonated he picked it up and ran to the door to get it out of the building, but before he could get rid of it, it blew up in his hands. SSGT Hein was airlifted to the hospital in Pleiku and died two days later on May 8, his birthday. [Taken from macvsog.cc]

Most of Colonel Karl E. Dankof’s Air Force career involved two commands, the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC); and the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), which utilized the U-2 spyplane at the height of the Cold War to assist the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in monitoring the missile sites and nuclear tests of the former Soviet Union. He was once chosen as the personal aide to General Curtis E. LeMay, founder of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), and Chief of Staff of the Air Force under President John F. Kennedy, for a command staff conference. After retirement from the United States Air Force in April of 1973, work began with the Lockheed Corporation as a logistical director for Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF), based at Ghasre Firouzeh Air Depot with secondary responsibilities at Doshentappeh Air Depot. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Colonel Dankof spent several years with the Lockheed Corporation in Marietta, Georgia, and then 4 final years with the aerospace giant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as a logistical advisor to the Royal Saudi Air Force. [Taken from mark1marti2.wordpress.com]