'It's a club I never wanted to join,' Gordon Treber says.
Gordon Treber was working in his woodshop on a fall day in 2005 when his son, James, called to report he was joining the Army. “He said, ‘They have this program where you go right into the Special Forces,’” Treber says. “He was a smart kid. I knew he had the mentality and drive to do it.”
Trace Adkins’ song “Arlington” came on Treber’s workshop radio as soon as that phone call ended. “I broke down and cried,” Treber says of the ballad about men and women who make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. A few years later, soldiers stood on his doorstep in Astoria, Ore., delivering the news that James had died in Afghanistan.
With these memories top of mind, Treber – a Navy veteran and Legionnaire – led the Sept. 29 dedication near the western end of the new Oregon Gold Star Families Memorial Highway, which now honors families of the fallen along U.S. Highway 30 from Astoria to Ontario. “It’s a club I never wanted to join,” he says of the moment he became a Gold Star father.
Treber was tapped to lead one of six dedication ceremonies along Highway 30 by Dick Tobiason, a Legionnaire and chairman of the Bend Heroes Foundation. Tobiason led efforts to persuade the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Tina Kotek to make the Gold Star Families Memorial Highway designation with the support of members of The American Legion and other veterans service organizations.
“Oregon will never forget its veterans and Gold Star families,” says Tobiason, who emceed the Portland dedication ceremony. American Legion Department of Oregon Commander Flynn Phillips, Past Department Commander Don Weber and American Legion Auxiliary Department of Oregon President Cindy Soria presented commemorative American Legion coins to the six Gold Star Families in attendance.
Tobiason read proclamations from President Joe Biden and Gov. Kotek, letters from Oregon’s congressional delegation and spoke about the history of Gold Star Mother’s Day and Gold Star Family’s Day. Congress first designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day in 1936 to honor those who had lost family members to war. It was later changed to include Gold Star Families.
Gold Star Highway dedication ceremonies also took place in Pendleton, Baker City and Ontario on Sept. 29. The Ontario event was led by American Legion Post 67 Commander Dan Burks. “We focus a lot on the sacrifices these individuals make,” Burks says of servicemembers who serve in conflicts overseas. “When they make the ultimate sacrifice, families pay at home. It’s an unending sacrifice.”
Highway 30 is the ninth Oregon highway named in honor of veterans because of efforts led by Tobiason. And he is encouraging other states along the 3,072-mile route to join efforts to create a National Gold Star Families Memorial Highway.
“I give Dick a lot of credit for spearheading all of these highways,” Treber says. “It’s a lot of work.”
Determination Treber was stationed in San Diego during most of his 26-year Navy career. James attended school in nearby Imperial Beach and joined ROTC at his stepmother’s insistence. “That’s where James came out of his shell,” Treber says. James worked as an engineer in the merchant marine after graduating from high school but found it boring. He decided to join the Army in 2005. “I think it was a combination of being in ROTC and watching the events unfold on TV on 9/11,” Treber says of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “I think that pissed him off.”
James met every challenge to earn his place with the Special Forces, inspiring those around him along the way. “I got a few letters from his fellow soldiers during the training process,” Treber says. “They were out in the woods at night. It was cold and dark and raining. And James kept everyone motivated.”
In June 2008, James was part of a four-man team on night patrol in rough terrain in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Their armored vehicle tumbled down a steep hill and landed top-down in a river, Treber says. James, who was the weapons sergeant, was riding in the back of the MRAP at the time of the accident. As the vehicle flooded, he freed one of the other soldiers from his harness in the gun turret and brought him up to a pocket of air inside the vehicle, Treber says. James then went back to rescue the other two soldiers, who were trapped in the front driver’s and passenger’s seat. All three ultimately perished.
Dedication The Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs donated Gold Star Memorial markers that were installed in veterans parks near each end of Highway 30. In addition, the Bend Heroes Foundation is raising $18,000 to pay the Oregon Department of Transportation to fabricate and install eight Gold Star Family Memorial Highway signs, one of which will be erected near Astoria. Treber says he hopes people will see the signs, learn what it means to be a Gold Star Family, and push for fewer wars.
“I didn’t want to be a Gold Star parent,” Treber says. “I don’t want anyone else to be one.”
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