OPINION: The Army heroes in Ogden

A big, giant tip of the editorial cap to hundreds of soldiers from Fort Riley - some of them just back from war - who showed up to help clear storm debris for folks in Ogden.

It started with Brian Crowder, whose house is off 12th Street, about as close to Fort Riley as you can get. He said the four ways into and out of his home were entirely blocked by big fallen cottownood trees in the windstorm that ripped through our region overnight Monday and early Tuesday.

He tried first to get some help from the city government, which basically said that city workers would pick up the limbs, but only when he got them to the curb. But that was the problem, he said: he couldn't do that. He went up and down the chain of government; finally, a city librarian recommended that he call Boots, an Army volunteer organization.

"All of a sudden I'm getting calls from California, North Carolina, all over. Then a joint call with (Command Sgt. Maj. Jake) Huckaby and company commanders at Fort Riley," Crowder said in a phone interview with The Mercury. "They said, 'We're coming tomorrow.'"

And then some soldiers didn't even wait that long, showing up that very day. By the end of two days of work - Wednesday and Thursday - involving more than 500 soldiers, Crowder said, they had filed up the city dump truck more than 40 times - and there's still debris that they cleared that the city hasn't picked up yet.

"The biggest problem was that they had too many hands and not enough cutting implements," Crowder said. He said he saw several soldiers with arm patches from the current conflict in the Middle East involved - some of them chopping the debris with hand axes. He said he fielded more than 150 calls, and "I can't even tell you how many messages" from volunteers.

"Grateful," Crowder said, when asked to describe how he felt. "There's no other word to describe it. Other entities of government couldn't (or wouldn't) deal with the problem, but "the military didn't say that. They said: 'How can we help? We're on our way. What's the address?'"

"Those soldiers are the real heroes," he said.

Couldn't say it any better.

Meanwhile, a tip of the editorial cap to our friends over in Lawrence, rivals though we are.

They've put out the welcome mat for the Algerian World Cup soccer team, which happens to be practicing there for games in Kansas City. They put up flags around town. People put on their green jerseys; local kids showed up to run through drills with the Algerian team.

And in a moment that resonates at least across a couple of countries, the KU Marching Band showed up at the first practice to play the Algerian National Anthem. Had to mean quite a bit to those Algerians.

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This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 12:10 PM.