My name is Ronald (Ron) Harper. Some call me Sarge. I grew up in rural Garden Grove area and graduated from Mormon Trail Community School in 1978. I soon married my high school sweetheart Dorinda Williams. She was a somewhat popular girl in the area because she was the daughter of a Iowa State Trooper, John Williams (429) from Humeston. My friends thought I was awful brave to go pick her up on that first date.
We married on June 30th of 1979. I had to promise her dad that she would graduate high school as she had a year left and folks were betting on if she was expecting or how long our marriage would last. I will say that she wasn’t pregnant then, but she showed well when she graduated from high school and our last anniversary in 2024, we celebrated 45 years of marriage.
We had four boys and before our first boy was born, I joined the Iowa Army National Guard, Detachment #1 3654 Maintenance Company in Chariton as a 45B, Small Arms Repairman. I did a split training option so in August of 1980, I left for Fort Leonardwood, Missouri for Basic Training. I graduated Basic Training in October 1980 and went home, attended a few National Guard Drills and helped my stepdad out with harvest and then went to my Advance Training to learn my skill in January 1981 at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.
I have always been interested in firearms and as a Small Arms Repairman, this gave me the opportunity to learn how machine guns functioned and how to inspect and repair multiple weapons from a .38 caliber revolver to pistols to shotguns to .30 and .50 caliber machine guns and more, up to a 4.2-inch mortar. I enjoyed doing the repairs on these weapons, but also the opportunity to fire them all and more.
1983 was a difficult time for my family. I was out of work, most of the year and it didn’t look like I was going anywhere. I had a young family to care for and we soon found out that we were expecting another baby, so I made the decision to leave the National Guard and join the regular Army.
I left for active duty on Dec. 6 ,1983 for Fort Knox, Kentucky. I spent approximately 18 months there with D Company, 75th Support Battalion, in the 194th Armor Brigade. There our third boy was born and I received orders to go to Germany.
I arrived in Germany for my first tour in August of 1985. I was assigned to the 7th Combat Equipment Company, 21st Support Command at Nahbollenbach Army Depot near Idar-Oberstein. Here I was in charge of several commodities of war stock materials. This was prepositioned material or war stock so that units from the states could fly over, draw this material and go to war. This was the peak of the Cold War when the Soviet Union was breathing down our necks. It was a very good duty assignment for the most part as there were only about 20 GI’s stationed there and the jobs were done by the local nationalist.
After a three-year tour here in Germany, I came down on orders and returned to the states specifically 226 Maintenance Company, 47th Combat Support Battalion, 214th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. My family and I enjoyed this short tour, as I then re-enlisted to return to Germany, this time up North of Frankfurt where Elvis did his Germany tour with the 3rd Armored Division. More specifically, B. Company, 54th Forward Support Battalion, in Friedberg, Germany.
This was a pretty tough tour as I had to leave my family behind as I waited for housing. I arrived again on Aug. 2 and Sadam Hussien decided to invade a neighboring country - Kuwait. I finally received housing and my family finally got their travel orders to come to Germany while I was in the field in Grafenwöhr/ Hoenfelds for 30 days of gunnery and war games in the cold and mud. The CO was gracious enough to allow me 10 days to get home, get my family and get all their things done and settled and get back to the field.
It was also during this field exercise that I found out that we were redeploying to Saudi Arabia as soon as we returned. The field exercise continued and when we finally did get home, it was “Katie, bar the door” as we prepared to ship our equipment to the desert. My family had been in country now for over a month and I barely got to spend any time with them. It was a very stressful time for all.
Finally, all our equipment, ammunition, and whatever else we thought we needed was shipped. We had an early Christmas with the boys as we didn’t know when our orders would come to leave for the desert. Finally on Dec. 31 while at a New Years party, I received the call that we were having a formation at 06:00 hours on Jan. 1 to deploy to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield.
So on Jan. 1 1991, I climbed on that plane for Desert Shield. We arrived at Khobar Towers in Khobar Saudi Arabia. We stayed in these towers awaiting our equipment to come in on ship. Then on Jan. 17 Desert Storm began.
I was Sargent of the Guard that night at the port where our equipment was staged. So, the next morning, those who had equipment and vehicles at the port, went and drew them and headed for Tactical Assembly Area or (TAA) Henry via a long southern route for safety. The others came along later as other ships would bring their vehicles in.
I was fortunate enough to have all my equipment and vehicles with me that I could take my squad with me. It seemed to me anytime there was a movement or a mission they would send me. I often thought they were trying to kill me, but I was too good and could always find my way back. I was the only one in the battalion who was ever officially listed as missing in action or MIA as I was sent on a mission that took me a couple days out and they could not account for me. This was also for advance party movements. I was sent to our Forward Assembly Area (FAA) Henry as our assembly area before crossing the berm for the ground war.
On midnight, Feb. 23, 1991 we heard two big explosions as the US Forces took out their last communication sources and we were told this is our indication that the ground war was to begin. So early that next morning we formed up and rolled to the border. We arrived at the border just before night fall and across the desert came a bus loaded down with the 3rd Armored Division band who entertained us with Glenn Miller tunes while we were fueling and preparing for our border crossing early the next morning.
The next morning, we rolled across the border as promised for the ground war. We were surrounded with a mix of infantry and armored units with support elements in the center. I remember getting inside of Iraq a few miles and my trailer broke in two. I stopped, popped the pintle to release the hitch and abandoned my trailer there in the Iraq desert.
We rolled through rocks, and dunes for three days. We would stop for major battle to play out like the “Battle of 73 Easting” (there is a YouTube video about this battle) and for the ground war to end. We spent almost a week in Iraq and received orders to move on into Kuwait. I remember this day because we were sitting in the smoke of the oil well in which the Iraq army lit on fire, chunks of soot was dropping all over our vehicles and equipment and I had to use my flashlight at noon to see the time on my watch. It was that dark.
Finally, into Kuwait under some huge radar dishes that were obviously blown up, my unit remained while they sent myself and several other soldiers to Kuwait for the draw down and return or re-deployment to Germany. Several in our Brigade were drawing down as our Division was picked to be de-activated. After our infantry and artillery units were sent back to Germany, I was sent back to Doha, Kuwait where we were setting up a base for future units. Finally, around June 16 we were sent back to Saudi Arabia and re-deployed back to Germany on June 19. Once in Germany the 54th FSB was reflagged to 501 Forward Support Battalion, 1st Armored Division.
It was time to finish out my tour of Germany and every Easter and every Thanksgiving we were in the field at Grafenwöhr and Hoenfelds for gunnery and training. It got old pretty quick. Finally in the fall of 1993, I said goodbye to Germany and goodbye to the US Army. I miss it at times, but I needed a homestead so my wife and I could raise our four boys with out moving them all the time.
We came back to Garden Grove, in Decatur County and in 2004 moved to rural Clarke County, just a couple miles outside of Osceola where we bought 10 acres and dubbed it “Hedge Ball Hills” We have a step-granddaughter, and three grandsons to carry on the Harper name and one great-granddaughter. One son recently passed, two of my sons are married and live out of state, and our second oldest son lives locally and has that special girl who I think he will be marrying in a year or two.
I am fighting cancer. It started in 2022 with cancer of the larynx. I had that removed and in 2024 I found out my cancer has returned and is in my lungs. I’m hoping and praying I can beat this too as I want to be able to travel and camp yet and enjoy a little more of what God gave us here.