Utah town opens its arms to local soldiers

Amber Willard

TOOELE, UTAH -- Tooele, Utah, is an unlikely place for most

Glendalians to visit.

About 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, the town is nestled in a flat

valley with snow-capped mountains all around. The winter wind, often

accompanied by blowing snow, howls through the town of a few thousand

residents.

State Highway 36, where it runs through Tooele, is called Main Street.

Along it are most of the town’s businesses -- a Super Wal-Mart, an

Applebee’s, even a Hollywood Video with a Christmas tree lot out front.

And there are soldiers. Lots of them.

About 100 Glendale-based National Guardsmen have been in the town for

two months, at Tooele Army Depot. The depot is an ammunition storage and

destruction site. The soldiers are guarding it in the wake of the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks.

The Glendale soldiers are joined by hundreds of other soldiers

stationed at the installation and others nearby.

“My friend had some of the guys over for Thanksgiving,” said Sandi

Higley, a waitress at the town’s Perkins restaurant, while she took a

break Saturday morning.

Today, more locals will have the soldiers into their homes for

Christmas.

“They make you a part of their family,” Cpl. Ernesto Escobedo said of

his Thanksgiving experience with a family. In addition to a dinner with

what he describes as “the works,” Escobedo and three other soldiers were

taken on a tour of the area.

Today, Escobedo will be dining with another local family.

Such treatment seems to be commonplace in the town, and it isn’t just

the soldiers at the Tooele Army Depot who are benefiting. The companies

guarding Dugway Proving Ground, some 40 minutes away, have also been

embraced by the community.

“They smile and say ‘hi’ on the street. You don’t see that much in

L.A.,” said Lt. Jeff Spangler, who is assigned to the Dugway site. The

installation attracted national attention last week when authorities

announced anthrax spores being studied at Dugway were similar to those

mailed to offices on the East Coast.

The town of Tooele (pronounced “twella” by locals) is being helped

along by the soldiers’ presence.

Higley, wearing a denim shirt with dancing snowmen while she worked

Saturday morning, said breakfast and lunch at the restaurant are made

even busier with the influx of hundreds of soldiers to the area.

“I’ve heard a group get excited when they talk about Wal-Mart

shopping,” she said.

The discount store is a hot spot for soldiers, who buy televisions and

clothing dressers to make their barracks more comfortable. Other shops

have extended their hours to accommodate the soldiers.

The depot itself has undergone some changes since the soldiers arrived

-- the first ones in nearly a decade. It has been even longer since this

many have been there, Lt Col. Bernd Willand said.

“The last time something like this was done was World War II,” Willand

said.

Even more soldiers will come to town when the Winter Olympics start in

February. Hundreds of military officials from across the country are

expected to arrive in the area to help with security at the games, which

will be in Salt Lake City. Although the Glendale unit will not be among

them, many of the Olympics guards will be housed in the barracks in

Tooele.