D4
SALUTE TO VETERANS
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2020
Interest in special forces lead Barnum to enlist
Army veteran made 36 plane jumps in 82nd Airborne Division
desk one or whatever. They just said they couldn’t do it. I was disappointed but under- stood.” He had hoped his time in the Airborne Division would lead him to Ranger school and eventually into Special Forces. “There’s no doubt in my mind that had been able to stay (in the military), I would made it into the Special Forces.” He made 36 jumps during his 15 months in the mili- tary, the first when he was training at Fort Benning in southwest Georgia. “I got up in that plane and I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing here? Am I really going to be able to jump out this plane?’ We were jump- ing in alphabetical order and although I had the train- ing, I was shook a little bit. “I didn’t want to be the first one out of the plane. I got lucky. There was a guy whose last name started with an ‘A’ so I was the sec- ond one (to jump).” He said one thing re- mained consistent about all of his jumps. “I always got a laugh out of the pay. Hazardous pay is what they called it,” Barnum said. “The amount was about $80 and I often wondered about was my life worth just that per
By TIM JOHNSON tim.johnson@nptelegraph.com Blake Barnum enlisted in the military thanks in part to Chuck Norris. The 57-year-old Stapleton native and North Platte res- ident was a fan of the action movies of Norris and Bruce Lee as well as shows and films that centered on Green Berets and the Army Special Forces. “From an early age I knew I wanted to go into the ser- vice,” said Barnum, who has three sisters and two broth- ers. “I always wanted to be one of those big, tough guys that I watched growing up.” He enlisted in the Army in September 1981 at 18, just out of high school, and became part of the 82nd Airborne Division and stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was medically dis- charged just over a year later as a progressively de- clining condition had left him deaf in his right ear. Barnum said he was experi- encing hearing loss over the years before he joined the military. “I wanted to stay (in the military) and maybe make a career of it,” Barnum said. “When I got discharged, I had asked about being as- signed to a different job — a
Tim Johnson / The North Platte Telegraph Blake Barnum holds a photo taken shortly after his enlistment into the Army in 1981 after he graduated from Stapleton High School. Barnum served in the 82nd Airborne Division before he was medically discharged.
said Barnum. “Everybody was watching and they were all quiet. I think that threw me off just enough. But peo- ple tell me it was a pocket ball. I had it in the pock- et, but the seven just didn’t fall.” But he took the positive from the experience. “I was disappointed but yet I was tickled to get a 299 game,” Barnum said. “It gives me something to work toward.”
now, and he has three grandchildren. He volun- teers at the Thrift Center on West Fourth Street and the Salvation Army food pantry. Bowling is a main pas- time. Last year he just missed a perfect game at Wild Bill’s Fun Center in North Platte. The No. 7 pin remained upright on his fi- nal throw. “As I was about halfway (to the foul line) I realized that there was no noise,”
jump. But I had fun with it. I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t take it out of my life.” Barnum returned home to Nebraska after he was discharged and worked a number of ranch and feedlot jobs over the years, main- ly in the Valentine and Ainsworth areas. “I was a Nebraska boy all the way and knew I was go- ing home,” Barnum said. The father of two daugh- ters and a stepson is retired
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