By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

World War II veteran, Marvin Nelson, 84, and his wife, Solveig, 83, of Kathryn, were among the 450 people who were on a 747 plane that took them to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7.
There were 260 veterans on board, 30 medical and support staff, and the rest of the passenger veterans’ escorts.
This was the second WDAY WWII Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. The first one was in May, and there will be one more in November. The flights for the veterans were paid for by donors to honor them, and the escorts paid for their own trips. The trip only took two hours and 15 minutes from Fargo to Washington, D.C.
Although they only spent Sept. 7 and Sept. 8 in Washington, Nelson said, “It was thrilling,” and something he really wanted to do. “It was fun to see some of these guys,” Nelson said. “They are kind of like brothers. There’s that link.”
Nelson said the WWII Memorial was “most impressive” and rather hard to describe. They were bused around to other monuments on the Capitol Mall, went to Arlington National Cemetery, saw the Changing of the Guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, the Korean War Memorial, and other historical sites.
He just wishes it could have been built earlier so more veterans could have seen it before they died.
Congressman Earl Pomeroy, D-ND, was there to meet the veterans and guests, and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, spoke at a banquet in the veterans’ honor. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND., had flown back to North Dakota because of the Northwood tornado.

Nelson said Sen. Bob Dole, himself a WWII veteran (where he was badly injured), and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, were also there, but Nelson didn’t see them as they were attending other events at the that time.
Nelson, who was born and raised near Kathryn, says before he was called to serve his country in WWII, he had never been farther away from home than an occasional trip to Fargo. He, like so other many young men, did what was asked of them even though they were scared.
Nelson was attending Interstate Business College in Fargo when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was 19 and working at the bank in Nome when he was drafted in January of 1943 and sent to Europe.
The troops were shipped to the border of France, where they couldn’t actually land in the harbor because of all the sunken ships. After reaching the shores of France via landing boats, the troops battled their way through Belgium, Germany and Austria. The men were sent to Europe as a result of the Battle of the Bulge, but the Germans were still defending their homeland and resisted fiercely. The American troops suffered 50 percent losses in their infantry while fighting in Europe.
Nelson said it was a wonderful feeling when the Germans started surrendering by the droves. Nelson and other soldiers took them as prisoners.
“It’s remarkable how one man [Hitler] thought he could have taken over the whole world,” Nelson said. He explained that if Hitler would have let his troops into England it would have been a lot worse. “He wanted them [the English] to surrender his way.”
The Germans had fortifications all the way from Norway to France, such as barbed wire and cross arms. They had huge bunkers sitting up, killing soldiers. “It was wholesale slaughter,” Nelson said.
German soldiers infiltrated American lines by putting on American uniforms and changing signs to certain towns, confusing American troops.
Nelson said Hitler had sent many of his troops to the United States to learn “our ways.” He said they were serious about infiltrating American troops.
“I was fortunate I didn’t have to see the camps where millions of Jews, and others, were killed. The Germans were tough, but not as bad as the Japanese,” Nelson said.
When Nelson and his fellow troops landed in Manila they couldn’t use the harbor there either because of all the debris.
They were sent to the Pacific in July of 1945 for six months, and then the war was over. He was scheduled to go to Japan, but then President Harry Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped in Japan, and he came home in February of 1946. Nelson was in the war a little over three years.
“I was very satisfied I came home alive,” Nelson said.
He said many people criticized Truman for dropping the “A” bomb but he and many other U.S. troops and their allies who were fighting over there, didn’t see it that way. Nelson said so many more lives would have been lost if the Japanese had been allowed to carry on the war.
Nelson returned home to Kathryn after the war and continued farming. He married Solveig Grandlund from Fort Ransom in 1950 and they have four grown children: a son, Barry (Sue) Nelson in Fargo, and three daughters: Patty (Larry) Pederson in rural Valley City; Susie (Tim) Jorgenson in Watford City; Mary Ann (Bill) Wieland in Aberdeen, S.D. They also have 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.