{"id":654,"date":"2010-08-31T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T18:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=654"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:11","slug":"r-i-p-morris-magnuson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/r-i-p-morris-magnuson\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Morris Magnuson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"morris\u201cWe aren\u2019t certain about the exact cause of Dad\u2019s death,\u201d said Lee Magnuson when I called this morning to express my sympathy over his father\u2019s passing. \u201cEven though he was 89, dad was so darn busy all the time people forgot that he had heart by-pass 23 years ago and wore a pacemaker..so we figure his heart just gave out\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true.. Morris Magnuson was a dynamo all his life. After retiring from a long career in South Dakota education, he and his wife of 65 years, Edith, not only traveled the world but immersed themselves in helping others through their church, senior care programs and veterans affairs<\/p>\n

When I first met Morris Magnuson, he was a teacher in Volga. \u00a0His son, Greg (Sioux Falls physician, Gregory Magnuson) was a year behind me in grade school and we chummed around together. \u00a0\u00a0I remember somebody saying Mr. Magnuson had been a fighter pilot in the war and taken prisoner by the Nazi\u2019s after being shot down. \u00a0I recall thinking that was pretty cool..but it wasn\u2019t until years later that I learned the magnitude of Magnuson’s service to his country.<\/p>\n

\"morris<\/p>\n

He enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor with intentions of flying fighters..but it wasn\u2019t until February of 1944 before his training in the P-47 Thunderbolt was complete and he was headed to Europe to join the fight.<\/p>\n

As part of Keloland\u2019s coverage of the World War Two Veterans Memorial dedication in Pierre a few years ago, I made arrangements to interview Morrie at his home. He answered the door wearing his Air Corps uniform which still fit like a glove . We chatted about his time in Volga and then I started asking questions about the war. His broad smile disappeared as he recalled some of those early missions; of looking down and seeing our men advancing on the beaches of Normandy into the teeth of Nazi bombs and machine gun fire. Of escorting B-17\u2019s on their bombing runs into France and Germany..only to turn back and leave them vulnerable because the fighters didn\u2019t have enough gas to escort them all the way.\u00a0\u201cOur assignment,\u201d Morrie said, \u201cwas to bomb and strafe any suspected Nazi target we could find from bridges and railroads to convoys of enemy soldiers and equipment.\u201d\"morris\u201cThere were times,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen I thought about the awful business of killing people. I was raised a church-going Lutheran and it dawned on me that many of those falling victim to my guns were probably Lutheran too. But, I soon realized that Hitler and the SS had to be stopped and it was my duty to do whatever was necessary to help bring that horrid war to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrie Magnuson\u2019s war could have come to an end after he completed 60 missions..but a friend and fellow pilot talked him into signing up for 20 more so they could go home together. \u00a0It was on that last flight while on a second strafing run of a German airfield that his Thunderbolt took a direct hit. He pulled back on the stick and with the canopy filling with smoke headed west until the engine quit and he bailed out. He managed to dodge German patrols for six days before encountering a lone Nazi solider armed with a rifle. \u00a0Both hid behind trees and started firing at each other, Morrie with his .45 pistol managed to wing the Nazi after being struck, himself, by a glancing bullet to the leg. That evening, so close to the American Lines he could taste it, Magnuson ran straight into a group of German soldiers and was taken captive. The following days were a blur of marching to prison camp with stops along the way to fight fires or repair railroad tracks. His home for the next several months would be Stalag 7 in Germany where conditions were deplorable and food was scarce.<\/p>\n

\"morrisThroughout his ordeal, Magnuson poured through the pages of the New Testament his mother had given him. She had to have a lot of faith too because back home in South Dakota the family had received a telegram that Morrie was missing in action. A day or two later, an Easter lily, which Morrie had ordered delivered home just prior to his final mission, arrived. \u00a0She believed it to be a sign that her boy was still alive and would survive.<\/p>\n

Well, it turns out she was right because on April 29th<\/sup>, 1945 General Patton\u2019s forces showed up to liberate Morris Magnuson and 70 thousand other P.O.W.\u2019s from their Hell on earth that was Stalag 7.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to remember Capt. Magnuson as the war hero he was: recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters, European African Middle Eastern Service Medal with 5 Bronze Stars, two Presidential Unit citations and the French Legion of Honor.<\/p>\n

\"morris<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also fitting that he remembered for 40 years focused on our children’s education as a teacher and school administrator.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll bet he\u2019d be just as happy if your thoughts of him simply be as that nice guy from church who instructed the AARP safe driving course, drove the Project Car, helped people with their taxes, delivered \u00a0\u201cMeals on Wheels\u201d and was a faithful loving husband, father and grandfather. Yeah, I\u2019m sure he would.<\/p>\n

\"morrie1<\/p>\n

(Thanks to Greg Latza for some of the photos.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe aren\u2019t certain about the exact cause of Dad\u2019s death,\u201d said Lee Magnuson when I called this morning to express my sympathy over his father\u2019s passing. \u201cEven though he was 89, dad was so darn busy all the time people forgot that he had heart by-pass 23 years ago and wore a pacemaker..so we figure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11853,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/11853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}