KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and SportsSioux City veteran shares family's story of service

Sioux City veteran shares family's story of service

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) - Every soldier has a story. Some have several recalling their service. These days, only a precious few can say that they were part of the "greatest generation". Fewer still can claim that their family sent five sons to war... to fight for their country. One Sioux City man can.

"You could see pock-marks from the big guns on the ships," said Eldon Stolpe, Sioux City. Omaha Beach... Normandy, France... June 25th, 1944.

"There was wreckage all around." Corporal Eldon Stolpe remembers every detail of his landing on Omaha Beach, 19 days after D-Day. "There was no dead bodies. They was evacuating them as they occurred."

A surreal scene for the 21-year-old Nebraska native, who was drafted to fix fighters. "Tried to patch up the holes." He says that patchwork kept him from fighting on the front-lines. "During the Battle of the Bulge, they collected people from all over to help the infantry." Stolpe was simply too valuable getting planes back in the air.

In fact, his whole family contributed to the war effort. "We did what we were asked to do." All five Stolpe brothers served during World War 2... Cliff, Arvid, Ray, Ken and Eldon.

Eldon tells the story of his father's trip to Sioux City, in 1944, in search of a piece of leather. "The woman behind the counter said they didn't have any. She said, 'haven't you heard there's a war on?'"

That war cost more than 400,000 American lives. And, though all five Stolpe boys made it home, many others didn't... like Marvin Apking. "He was very active. A little cocky, because." Apking was also Stolpe's boyhood friend. He died when his bomber was shot down in 1944.

In 2004, 60-years after D-Day, Stolpe visited Apking's grave, in France. "Got a little bit heavy. It gives me a question: 'why am i so blessed?'" Stolpe says, so he can "teach". Every Veterans Day, Stolpe talks to local students about service... "They have no idea what war is about." And, about sacrifice. "What some people have to give."

And, what Stople continues to contribute to the community.