001Everyone's friends No, I just was kind of waiting for a queue to make sure everybody's in. That's fine. Go right ahead. Did it I think we are ready to begin. Let me welcome you all to the wall of fame awards ceremony. Great to see so many of you here. My name is Mike Tronson. I'm honored to be your master of ceremonies for the proceedings this evening. And as many of you already know, we are here to honor our friends of education and outstanding alumni. And at this time, just want to tell you a little bit about those folks who we are here to honor tonight. Now, the Friends of Education Award, of course, recognizes an individual, or in this case, individuals or organization for their distinguished service to the district and its students. The Outstanding
002Alumni Award recognizes a graduate of the Beaverdam Unified School District for his or her exceptional accomplishments and for setting the standards for our students. And of course, our friends of education honores tonight. I've known these folks a long time. I uh I think everybody has to be to be honest with you here. I I moved to town in 1997 and I don't remember exactly when or where, but I I met you guys right off the bat somewhere. I I know that for a fact. Probably the parking lot of Piggly Wiggly or Quick Trip or something like that. Chuck and Jeanie Stungle, they epitomize Yeah. Give them a round of applause, will you please? They epitomize what it means to be a friend of education. Their dedication and commitment to the youth of Beaverdam unwavering. They
003are strong advocates for children. Their involvement in community organizations and activities are examples of that commitment. Their involvement includes coordinating and organizing the National Night Out Event, helping with fundraising for the Beaverdam Scholarship Foundation in addition to volunteering with the playground movement where they also serve as board members. Chuck's leadership in a community program led to organizing a community drive for personal care items that were distributed to schools for their comfort closets. Chuck and Jeanie understand the value of positive influences and have had and have mentored numerous children over the years. They continue to make a difference. So once again, please give a round of applause for our friends of education honores Chuck and Jeannie Stungle. We are also here of course to honor our outstanding alumnest James Campbell. Give him a round of applause.
004He is a 1980 graduate of this institution. He received his BA from Yale University in 1984 and his MA from the University of Colorado in 1995. After college, he began a career in advertising. However, his passion for writing and adventure led him to pursue a career more aligned with his values. Early in his career, James wrote for Rolling Stone magazine and provided articles as a freelance author to National Geographic Field and Stream, among others. His adventures to some of the most remote regions of the world have provided the inspiration for his writing. And his dedication and commitment to telling a story leads readers on journeys and portrays real life struggles and orals in each of his award-winning and highly acclaimed books. The Final Frontiersmen, The Ghost Mountain Boys, The Color of War, Braving It, and
005upcoming book, Heart of the Jaguar, are testaments to James wide range of interests that highlight personal struggles, inequalities, conservancy, and parenting. His television production career includes developing and producing television series for Discovery and the History Channel. and his book, The Final Frontiersman, was the inspiration for the Discovery series, The Last Alaskans, which ran for four seasons. He also produced a series, Great Lake Warriors, for the History Channel, and that followed the challenges of tugboat crews. His passion for storytelling continues as he pursues adventures while also keeping himself grounded in his smalltown, Wisconsin roots. Another round of applause for James Campbell. Before we get into the formal part of our uh honoring our recipients here, I would like to introduce any past recipients who are present. I'm told that these folks I think are all here.
006I saw most of them. I'm going to ask you when I call your name to please stand and be recognized. Uh Bev Beal Lake, 2022 friend of education. I saw Bev. Yeah, there she is right down front. Bev and Jim Flynn. I think Jim is here somewhere. 2013 friend of education. Where's Jim? How about uh Laura Gorl, 2020 friend of education. Laura, stand up. There you go. Tom Hefron, 2018 friend of education. Tom is here somewhere. Right there he is. Let's see. Barb Link is here. 2018 friend of education. He's waving. There we go. Roger Null. Is Roger here? There he is. Roger Noah 2003 friend of education. K. Stealthlug. Is Kay here? Yep, there she is right there. 2002 friend of education. Is there anybody else here that I missed? Any any award recipients
007from the past? Would you stand up if if I don't see anybody? Oh, that's good. They gave me good information. All right, on with our ceremony here. Uh we're going to move now to again talk more about our 2024 friends of education and to present Chuck and Jeannie Stung. I would like to ask Carol Trentum to please come up to the podium. Carol [Applause] I am so excited to be here to be able to present this award, especially on teacher appreciation week. And our two recipients combined have a total of 62 years in education. Way to go. As an educator myself, I am big on definitions. I found that there were 22 qualities of a friend. When I was looking up the definition of a friend and also a high powered definition of the word
008education included in the definition of a friend are these qualities living with integrity, trustworthy and honest, respect for personal boundaries, encouragement, making time for you, patience, going deeper than the surface level. And in the definition of education, we look at the transmission of habits, ideals, hopes, expectations, standards, and opinions from one generation to the next. So, we're going to combine these two definitions. And while I am I'm going to tell you some of the reasons that these two individuals are receiving this award and think of these definitions. Uh but I also have an assignment for you. I want you while I am relaying some of the reasons why they're receiving this award. I want you to calculate in your mind how many students and how many community members that these two have touched. So are
009you ready? First they were all we've heard that they were in charge of the national night out helped run sports camps athletic tutoring hoops monitoring establishing a bookroom working concession stands refereeing co-president of the Washington PTO painting at the community center, president of the citizens of the police academy. How you doing on your calculations here? Keep adding. member of the fire department, auxiliary, crossing guards, then and now, bike rodeos, school Olympics, organized and advocated for new track construction, delivered meals on wheels, scholarship foundation board, members of the playground movement as volunteers and as board members. And the leadership Beaver Dam was that project where they collected huge donations that were given to church health services and then those church health services distributed them to the school building food gardens very active in booster club officers
010in the Dodge County area retired educators and that is just not everything that they've done. So if your answer to my assignment is I can't calculate all of that, they just keep adding up and adding up and it keeps going on. The two of them certainly are the dynamic duo and it's with a great pleasure that I introduce to you the winners and wonderful great addition to the wall of fame, Chuck and Jeannie Stungle. Great job. Thank you. Jeanie looks a little bit more concerned that I'm about to talk than Chuck, so I don't know what that that means. Don't worry, my my air time's seriously limited because I'm going to yield the floor to you in just a moment. But uh before I present you with this plaque, um I think what what Carol
011shared was a lot of the what that you guys did, but I think um what's even more amazing is how you did it. Um you bring uh a light and a spirit to what you do. Um and it's remarkable and not only uplifts and adds value to the people that you're impacting, but the people that observe it and the adults. So, thank you for being a wonderful role model for all of us. Thank you. photographer. I limited it to him to three pages. It's been vetted several times. It's an absolute privilege and honor to have been selected to receive the Beaverdam Hall of Fame. Yeah. Friends of Education Award. Gan and I would like to thank the Friends of Education Committee for selecting us for this award and to those who nominated us. We are
012truly honored to receive this recognition. We have always felt a strong connection to the Beaver Dam community which led us to become involved with various local organizations and their causes. Whenever there was a need, we tried to be there to lend a helping hand and serve in any way that we could. We rarely say the word no, which at times can be challenging. You should see what our calendar looks like. But in the long run, being involved has provided us with amazing opportunities to serve along alongside community members. Local organizations that we were heavily involved with were the Playground Movement, National Night Out, Meals on Wheels, the Beaverdam Scholarship Foundation, Church Health Services, Second Harvest Food Pantry, and we were even on the stage at the Beaverdam Area Community Theater painting sets and spaces in
013their new location. And we also were involved with the Beaverdam Citizens Police Academy. Education has always been an important part of our lives. During our time in the district, we enjoyed helping students with their academics. Whether it was study groups at the high school, tutoring after school, or hosting the infamous test correction parties, and t tutoring student athletes in our home, we believe that every student was valued and could succeed. Jeanie's Hoops mentoring program was instrumental in pairing members of the boys basketball team with the students at Lincoln School to combine learning and sports. Team members would come to Lincoln school to help in the classroom. There was even a Lincoln Lightning cheering section in the north gym of the high school. In the summer, we had concrete league at our home for the Beaver
014Dam boys basketball program. Games were played in our driveway that had halfcourt markings painted on it. The evenings always ended with everyone invited into our home for some intense N64 Nintendo games and Genie's Rice Krispie treats. N64 and I didn't get along very well. And when it was time, we all we always played game, you know, we had two teams of two, so four people played. So when it was my time to be on somebody's team, the other three guys, the they would say, "Not Chuck." And whoever said, "Not Chuck last had me as their partner first." And and of course that was a guaranteed loss. So I worked my way through everybody. Our message to others is don't be afraid to donate your time to activities and organizations that you are passionate about. You
015will never know how many lives you are impacting by what you are doing. One more side note. Yesterday my wife and I were out shopping in around Madison. We were in um Middleton and we were at Jung's garden center looking for some plants and the young man there working, you know, started talking to us about what we were needing and he looked at me and said, "Are you Mr. Stungle?" And here it was one of my former students from the charter school and uh it was just amazing. It definitely touched me. As I always say, keep making a difference. Again, we thank you for this honor. Thank you. One more round of applause for Chuck and [Applause] Jean. And now we move to honor our 2024 outstanding alumnest. And at this time to present our
016award winner James Campbell, I'd like to invite Steve Kinsey and Jeff Campbell up to the podium to say a few words. Give him a round of applause. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Mike. I don't know how you follow those stungles after that. So, it is with great pleasure that I have this opportunity opportunity to present Mr. James Campbell, a proud 1980 graduate of Beaver High School, as this year's outstanding alumni recipient. I've known Jim since I was a young kid. Now, when I say known, that is I knew who Jim was. He didn't know who I was. Jim was the star football player from the 1979 Golden Beaver State Championship team. And as a 10 foot or as a 10-year-old football junkie, we all knew who who they were, but as I said, they didn't
017know us. Okay. I got to know Jim later in life when I was a high school player. Jim and his younger brother Jeff would often come back and work out with us as we were preparing for our high school season. and they were preparing for their college seasons. More than just working out with us, they gave us uh advice on different things like position, technique, strategy, and more importantly, things like how to be a leader on and off the field. Jim has led a remarkable life to say the least. Captain of the state champion football team, starting linebacker at Yale University. Yes, Yale University. Okay. How many kids from Beaver Dam have gone to Yale? All right. These uh accomplishments in high school and college led to his induction into the athletic hall of fame
018in 2015. After attempting to crack into the NFL a dream that was ended by a knee injury, he entered the world of advertising, but soon found his passion for writing and embarked upon embarked upon a career that would take him literally to opposite ends of the planet. Jim often wrote about the great outdoors. Mostly he just loves to write about anything interesting, those out of the box type of stories. These stories soon became books. To date, he has written five books, all of which have received awards and or high praise by countless critics and reviews. His latest book is due out in November. Is that a good plug? Good plug for you right there. Thank you. Yeah, there you go. Free, too. Free. All right, good. Yeah. Jim's passion for storytelling also branched out into
019the media world. Uh he helped produce two television television series that garnered high critical acclaim and was broadcast across two major cable networks, History and Discovery Channel. Lastly, despite the many accomplishments that he has achieved, Jim is just a great guy. Though I haven't had many interactions with Jim over my lifetime, those that I did have were powerful. From what I've learned as I put his candidacy together is that Jim is well grounded. He's a nononsense, downto-earth type of guy who values family, seeks adventure, pushes limits as a way to grow, and cares about the world around him. The dude's nickname is soup, and his email is Bogmoose. And that's proof alone that he's just a great guy who loves living a simple life in the real world. If there's a hall of fame for
020nice guys, Jim along with his brother Jeff, our first ballot, unanimous selection, Hall of Famers. Speaking of Jeff, I welcome him to the podium to wrap up this introduction for Jim. All right. Thank you very much, Stephen, for all your hard work, tireless work to put this together. And thanks for inviting me and letting me be a part of it as well. Um, I I have to admit I can't call him James. That just is completely foreign to me. So, he's referred to as Jimmy. Um, Jimmy, uh, this this is a this is an honor and a privilege to be part of and what an honor it is for you to to be inducted for your contributions to the world of adventure and discovery. Um, I in addition to my uh letter of endorsement, I
021was tasked to appeal to uh two of his daughters and Elizabeth's daughters to uh um uh see if they would write letters in in of endorsement as well. And um they were both beautiful letters, one of which uh was written by their eldest daughter, Aiden. And it's a beautiful letter and actually brought tears to my eyes. So I thought I'd share it here. Okay. A dreamer by nature, my dad has ventured to some of the world's world's most remote regions. The islands of Micronesia, the jungles of New Guinea, the Amazon rainforest, and the tundra of Alaska. In doing so, he's risked his life more times than my mom or grandma grandmother would would care to know. But to bring his characters to life, he believed he needed to follow in their footsteps. To understand the
022soldiers who hiked through who hiked across New Guinea during World War II, he decided to retrace their trail, though calling their path through swamps and precipitous ravines a route at all was generous. In the process process of that month-long trek, he busted his knee and came home with malaria boot. But his boots on the ground research won him the trust and respect of World War II veterans who'd served there. He approached writing about Alaska in the same way, spending nine months in the bush, living alongside his cousin, Himo Cor, the last uh year-round resident of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while working on his best-selling book, The Final Frontiersmen. And then inspired by Himo's daughter's upbringing, he returned 10 years later to bring me, his 15year-old daughter, to the Alaskan tundra so that I too
023could learn to build a fire, fish for my supper, hunt and track, and embrace a life far removed from our modern one. My dad My My dad could write from the comfort of his chair in the living room. But what gives his writing power are the details drawn from lived experience, the sound of cracking ice on the river, a jaguar's roar, the star navigators singing love songs. It's why every prominent big cat biologist in Brazil knows his name. Why our home is filled with shell necklaces from Micronesia and New Guinea. And why growing up on our answering machine was always full of heartfelt uh long heartfelt messages from World War II veterans who'd read his work. Braving it, the book my dad wrote about our experience in Alaska together bring uh begins with a quote
024from the author Hoting Carter. There are two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other wings. My dad taught my sisters and me to be bold, dream big, and always take the road less traveled, even if it meant bushwacking. But he never wanted us to overlook the beauty, the excuse me, the beauty of home. There's the off-reed cliche that if a small town gets out, a small town kids get out, they never come back. Despite all his travels, he chose to raise a family just 45 minutes from where he grew up in Beaver. He'd show us pictures of Denali or the blue holes of Micronesia and right next to it dawn breaking in the Horacan Marsh which he'd swear was just as pretty. His favorite color, he'll
025tell you, is the verdant green of a July cornfield and he won't travel in the fall lest he miss uh morning duck hunt or watching the Packers Packers game with my grandmother. My dad My dad gave us wings, but he also gave us roots. I hope that as a member of the Beaverdam Hall of Fame, he will not only inspire kids to follow that sense of adventure, but to cherish that sense of place. Jimmy, I'll pass the baton to you. Your family is real very proud of you. All right. And know that uh James Campbell II uh is is is most certainly proud of you as well. There's a lot of a lot of emotions um tonight, but um there's a lot of good reason for that. So um you know, when I when I
026moved to Beaver Dam, there were a few names that were uh brought to my attention. The Campbell name actually from your father, longtime Kiwani, and had the privilege of of sitting down with him many a time. didn't realize how talented you were until I heard countless countless stories of the class of 19 or the 1979 football champion. So, as the high school principal here, I got to hear that quite a bit. But um I just want to thank you on behalf of the school district, the Hall of Fame committee for not only being an outstanding student while you were here and a supremely talented individual, but being a great father, a great son, a great talent, and sharing that with everybody that you've had the opportunity to come in contact with to help their lives
027be better and make a positive impact on this world. So, uh thank you so much and congratulations on being this year's outstanding alumni. is yours. Thank you. Oh man, I got weepy eyes and following a a weepy man in a pink high top. It's a tough act to follow. And then my brother and Steve. Well, anyway, thank you all for coming. I'm um I'm honored and flattered and very very grateful. I don't know how many of you um remember the scene from the adventures of Tom Sawyer, but Huck and Tom and Joe, Mark Twain called him Engine Engine Joe, are hiding in the balcony of the church while they're being eulogized and they can't believe all the amazing things that are being said about them. Well, I feel like that today. I'm flattered and grateful
028and honored but also um a bit overwhelmed. So, uh first of all, I'd like to thank the committee. I know you probably had a lot of very qualified applicants and I know that you've given the award to a lot of people with very remarkable careers in the past. So, I thank you very much for that. I'd like to thank Mary Poshima. Mary, I must have sent her a hundred emails in preparation for this, but she was friendly and reliable and always patient. So, thank you very much, Mary. Um um I'd like to thank Steve Kinsey, who I understand hatched this idea last fall. Steve does so so much for uh for the Hall of Fame and um you know he he goes above and beyond the duty. So Steve, thank you. Um I'd like to
029thank Jeff um also for for the introduction and Jeff rode herd on this and I think he assembled all the material from my daughters which I understand was not a very easy task. Um, like like most young people, they're very very hard to reach. But I also want to thank Jeff for being shoot. You set a terrible example of a um, yeah, for being a fellow adventurer. uh in excuse me way back in 1989. I was working in Chicago, was eager to get out and Jeff had just graduated from high school and we had grown up watching National Geographic videos and we wanted to go off on a young man a young man's adventure and we were either going to build the raft and float down the Amazon or we were going to go to
030Papa Nina. Well, we chose to go to Papa Nina and I think it change it changed my life and I think it changed uh Jeff's life. We fell in love with the place as remote a place as you can get on the planet Earth and the people and the culture and the landscape and it um it it it was for me the beginning of a long a long history with um Papu Nagini. Uh, I'd like to thank I'd like to thank Beaverdam High School and my coaches and teachers. Hey, this it was a great place to go to high school. A re a really great place. And I we we had a lot of people who believed in us and that that's a special thing. Um, okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna collect myself here for
031a moment. I' I' I'd like to thank my mom for 93 years of worrying. When Jeff and I went off to New Guinea in 1989, um we were out of touch for five weeks. And mind you, we weren't just backpacking in in Europe, which is a great thing, but we were in the middle of, as I said, one of the most remote places in the world. And I know that my mother didn't have have one decent night of sleep. I'd also like to thank her for introducing us to literature and books. Um, if you go visit my mom during the week, she will either be knitting or crocheting or reading. Usually a classic, anything from Tony Morrison to Thomas Man, but um, she is always reading. She also, by the way, wanted us hoped that
032we would love opera. That one didn't stick. And I think it's one of her great regrets. I'd also like to thank her and my dad who as is no longer with us for teaching us about hard work. Um people think that writing books and making TV is about being creative and about inspiration. It is. But um the muse is a fickle friend. And when the muse is not around, all you have are discipline and the hard the lessons and hard work that you've learned all of your life. Um, and I I I I learned those from my my mom and dad. And um, my dad was also a great storyteller. And he, excuse me, he taught us to love stories. And he was a psychologist. That was his profession. But at heart, he was he
033was always a farm boy. And grow growing up, excuse me, we listen to his stories and I'm sure they had a profound effect on me. Um, and I I'm sure that's one of the reasons that I love to tell stories. Um, I'd also like to thank my wife who was here earlier but is in class tonight um for sticking with me um through feast and famine, prosperity and poverty. and um being being the significant other of of a of a freelance writer and TV producer um um is a is a tough is a tough role. Um but Elizabeth is is is has handled it with with grace and equinimity and I couldn't have asked for any anything more. Um it's an uncertain it's an uncertain kind of life. um often you there there's one check
034with you know during the year and that's it. So it's very very tough you know to to to create any kind of budget but she is she has stuck by me. Um she is also my fellow adventurer. She can out hike out ski out bike me out bike me any day of the week. Um and by the way in 1995 she went to New Guinea for her honeymoon. Um, we we traveled around the world and I begged her to go to Papa New Guinea. By the way, Jeff joined us on our honeymoon and and um we were uh on the Papa Nagini side. We climbed the second highest mountain and then Jeff left and we went to the western side which is now called Papua and Elizabeth got malaria and she was she was deathly
035sick and we got I got her out by steamship to an island called Terranate of World War II fame and we found the one doctor on the island island and he administrated administered massive doses of chlor chloricquin and she eventually recovered and um I think her parents encourage her encouraged her at that point to think about enlling the marriage but but I think she was um she she was in it for for the for the long hall and I'd like to thank our daughters who here I go again um who you know are are one of my greatest gifts And my my daughter, my middle daughter, wrote something for me and she said that it she wasn't it was when she turned seven, she realized that her dad didn't have a normal job, that he
036was gone a lot and home a lot. And it's true. I'd be gone for two or three months at a crack and then I'd be home for six or eight six or eight months. And being a freelancer, I set my own schedule. So, I worked very early in the morning and I got the girls up for school and I read to them in the morning. I made their breakfast. I did their hair. I took them to school and it went to all their sporting and school events. And uh I will never ever regret that. So, what I'd like to what I'd like to do today is tell you a little bit about I don't want to I could go on a long time, but I don't I don't want to impose upon you, but a
037little bit about um my career as a writer and and um and a TV TV producer. My my second book um is called The Ghost Mountain Boys. And um actually my third book is called Braving It. It's about three trips my 15 year old 15year-old daughter and I made to the remote Arctic. And um my mom when I was writing the book introduced me to two German words. One was him and one was fenve. And Heimve means and only the Germans could create words for these you know kind of inexpressable emotions but himve means a longing for home and fairve means a longing for far-flung places. Well, many of you might recognize that they were always two very powerful emotions in my life. And I really believe that my rootedness or my sense of my
038place in the world allowed me to tr do the kind of traveling that I love. My buddies think that that um my career is actually a ruse. They think that it's mere merely justification for an insatiable desire to travel. that I just I just say I'm writing books and say I'm making TV just so I can go off. And I imagine there's an element of truth to that. But um the real reason is that um well I feel for one I I I I think that allows me to get at the essence of the story and not not only the essence of the story but the essence of my characters and the essence of the land which always plays a big role in not only my books and articles but also my my TV. So,
039what I'd like to do today is I'd like to, if I remember how to do this, show you a 9-minute video um of my second book called The Ghost Mountain Boys. The Ghost Mountain Boys was a book about,00 US soldiers largely from the Midwest, from Wisconsin and Michigan, from the 32nd Red Arrow Division, who were ordered by General MacArthur to hike across New Guinea before they met the Japanese in combat. And um they they many of these most of these um men were 18, 19, 20 years old from small towns in Michigan and Wisconsin. And here they were in the middle of the New Guinea jungle, completely illquipped for what they were about to encounter. Took him 42 days to hike the the 140 miles. And when they got to the front, they were physically
040shattered by the experience. men. Men had lost a third of their body weight on on the hike, yet they were sent directly into battle. In 2005, I went to New Guinea to see if it was possible to retrace that trail. And everybody told me or most of the people that I inquired um with uh told me discouraged me from trying to do it. But there were two people who said, "Yeah, I think it's doable." So, I put together an expedition team in 2006 and we retraced um their route and was the hardest thing that that I've ever done. I trained for six months before before the trek and a month before I left I fell and I tore up my knee and we were so we were so deep in it by that point that
041I decided to go on with the expedition. On the first day of that expedition, I fell down the mountain and reinjured my knee and I walked out of the jungle, got got a vehicle back to Port Moresby, which is the capital of Papa New Guina. Got painkillers and then was helicoptered back out. Um, it took us 27 days to do that trail and as I said, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But um the one one point I want to make before showing you the video is that when we finished the trail, we got to celebrate. When when these men, the Ghost Mountain Boys, finished the trail, they went directly into battle. So I am in no way equating what we did with what they did. So this is nine
042minutes long. I hope you enjoy it. Oh, wrong one. Got it. We're not walking out. Okay. [Music] Amen. In a journey that strained the limits of endurance, James Campbell has rediscovered a nearly forgotten chapter of World War II bravery and suffering. In 2006, the author and adventurer began an extraordinary quest to retrace the path of an American infantry battalion sent on an impossible mission. The soldiers were ordered to march 120 m over the uncharted mountains of New Guinea. Their journey has been described as one of the crulest in modern military history. Many of them national guardsmen from the Midwest, they would endure an incredible test of survival before they even entered combat. Starting from their coastal camp, the soldiers slashed their way through the jungle to a 9,000 ft peak that the natives said was
043haunted, the soldiers called it Ghost Mountain, and they would become known as the Ghost Mountain Boys. Ghost Mountain. We walked over to Ghost Mountain. There wasn't a bug, a fly, or nothing. There was no birds. It was just weird. It was eerie as we went along. And of course, the more burdensome you got, the tired you got, well, you start shedding stuff. And I think when we went over to Ghost Mountain is when I shed everything I had and would go over it because I think they had uh they they couldn't go by just so far. Malaria, dysentery, jungle rot, trenchoots, and hunger plagued them. And on the other side of the mountains, elite troops of the Japanese Empire waited in their bunkers. The battles on the beaches and in the swamps of New Guinea,
044sometimes fought handto hand, were some of the most savage of the South Pacific War. That was 1942. More than a half century later, Campbell began assembling his Ghost Mountain team. Ghost Mountain, old friend and Chicago based journalist George Hood agreed to take part, suggesting they collaborate on a documentary. Another friend, Dave Musgrave, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an accomplished backpacker, also signed on. I can't imagine doing this, not knowing what's ahead, having dysentery, malaria, not having the right equipment. Outside magazine photographer Philip Engelhorn became the team's fourth member. Can I go home now? German by birth, Englehorn was based in Hong Kong. I'm tired and I'm hungry. Palm Productions of New Guinea provided a camera crew. The trail boss was Lee Tyurst, an Australian living in New Guinea and an experienced
045jungle treker. Slingshots and spears and the dogs. The dogs are more important than anything else that you can hunt with. These dogs will not bark until they see the game and then everybody knows it's on. On a hot June day from a high ridge overlooking the Mimmani River, Campbell and his team began their journey. That first day, the expedition nearly collapsed when Campbell fell and reinjured a knee. He was forced to turn back. Tired and dehydrated, Hood also retreated. We're feeling pretty exhausted. It's torturous country. Um I'm 44 years old with a bad wheel. uh thought I could do it and um it's a killer. We get 3 days in, we start failing, then what the heck do we do? Plus, we didn't want to slow down the entire group. Rather humiliating, as you might
046imagine. The rest of the team went on Back in Port Moresby, Campbell and Hood regrouped. 4 days later, they rejoined the team by helicopter, landing at a village called Laruni. [Music] The team did not travel alone. [Applause] [Music] As the American army had done, the team hired carriers and guides from the villages along the route. Among them was Beiru. As a seven-year-old boy too frightened to stay behind, Beirua followed his parents as they carried ammunition and supplies for the Americans. Now more than 70, he and his wife Beimma would help guide Campbell and his team over Ghost Mountain. Buoua warned Campbell the mountain was haunted by Masali, evil spirits and demons. Buoua told other stories and helped the team find those who knew or remembered the American soldiers. They saw that plane crest and then
047they start the troops were moving. The American troops will start moving down to where the praying crest. Those tales have become part of the local folklore passed down from generation to generation around village campfires. In 1942, the rugged interior of New Guinea was an unmapped wilderness. 64 years later, the team would discover an ecosystem and native people largely unchanged by the passage of time. New [Music] Y remains a land of no roads and longforgotten villages where hunters still use slingshots and spears and have little contacts with the outside world. After more than a month of suffering, the men of the Ghost Mountain Battalion reached the north coast of New Guinea. They went directly into battle, joined by the rest of their 32nd Infantry Division comrades. According to one historian, the combat was a knife fight
048out of the Stone Age. Though not on a military mission, Gamble's team pushed across New Guinea toward an important goal, to resurrect the story of the Ghost Mountain Boys. It became an ordeal the team could not have imagined and one it will never forget. [Music] How you feeling? [Music] Okay, thank thank you very much. Um, I should get the Beaver Dam banner back, but sorry about that. Um anyway, um a lot of those men, a lot of those men who were the ghost mount ghost mountain boys I grew very very close to. Um I ultimately interviewed maybe more than 50 50 of the men who made that march. And um I tell you what, they they suffered and they were grateful that when in in while I was writing and researching the book that I
049would attempt something like this. So I grew very very close to them and I used to meet with a with them a lot. They used to call the house all the time. Stanley Yustre Yuststreky would call the house and he'd say, "This is Stan the man Ystreky from Moskegan, Michigan." That's Jas Rs Ki. Yremsky. And they were wonderful, wonderful men. Unfortunately, they're all gone now, but um my first meeting with them was at Fort McCoy, and they had the 32nd Division Old-Timers meeting there. And I was sitting on the end of my bunk and there was a big big circle of men talking. They were in their 80s and some of them in their early 90s as older people do. I'm one of those. Um they start talking about their ailments. And one one fella
050had just had a just had a heart attack and um bypass surgery. Another had just had a stroke. one was suffering from from um he he couldn't he had no feeling in his hands and feet and the oldest guy in the group he had big big Coke bottle glasses and he probably weighed no more than 90 pounds his name was Don Stout and he was from Milwaukee and he said oh all you young guys complaining about your ailments he said when I leave this earth he said you don't want to you want to know how I want to go out and they all said all right Don How do you want to go out? He said, I don't want to have a heart attack. I don't want to have a stroke. He said, when I
051leave this earth, I want to be shot by an iate [Laughter] husband. So, so you can imagine what a spending a week with these guys was like. It was one of the one of the great one of the great joys of my life listening to their bad poker music and their bad and their you know bad jokes and well anyway it was it was a great experience. Um so I'm going to talk I'm going to talk about two two other books and I'll I I'll keep it quick. Um, my first book was a book called The Final Frontiersmen. And that was about I don't know if any of you have read it, but it was about my cousin Himoorth. By the way, um, Himoorth went up to Alaska in the 70s, and he just didn't
052he didn't go to Fairbanks or or Anchorage. He went to the remote Arctic Alaska,und 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a 100 miles for the from the nearest neighbor. And he he um raised a family there. And by the way, the the adventure uh genetic marker for adventure in our family is is pretty prominent. But um he still to this day lives more remotely than anybody in the state of Alaska. But I remember when he went up, I was a young man. Actually, I was 12. And I admired him so much and I vowed then and there that when I came of age, I was going to do exactly the same thing. Well, when I came of age, I went east to New Haven, Connecticut. And no mountain man in the making ever goes
053to New Haven, Connecticut. So, by writing the book, I got to live out a portion of my my own dream. Um, and I spent I spent um over the course of two years with them. I I I lived with them and it was hard work. I lived in a little tent. They wouldn't let me live in the cabin. It was Himo, his wife, and their two daughters. And so I he put me off in a little um wall tent with this tiny tiny little wood stove, undependable wood stove. And at night it would get 40 below all you know that was not that was not um um remarkable. It was 30, 40, even colder than that below every single night. And I froze. I froze up there for the entire winter. And then I I
054I hunted with Himo. We packed out moose. We packed out caribou. And it was really really hard work, but um it was something it was something I loved. Um as I said, it was had been a dream of mine and um a dream I never fulfilled. So I got the opportunity to do it by by writing that book. And ultimately um as as as it was said that that book was made into a television series called The Last Alaskans and I was an executive producer for the show and my role was to write the stories um to write the story lines for the various ep for the various for the show and the various episodes. And I was able to do that because I had lived up there. I knew the cycle of their lives.
055I knew that in mid January the people were going to be elated because the sun, which they hadn't seen in six weeks, they'd finally see on January 18th. So, the camera crews had to be there up there on January 18th when the sun came back so they could see how giddy all these people were. Um, so that that that was a that was a really that was a really fulfilling experience for me. And that show ultimately was nominated for for two Emmys. Unfortunately, um, Discovery Channel kind of, um, it was a surprise when they canceled the show because the can the show was still quite strong. So, it was surprise and a disappointment. Um, I loved Alaska so much that um, I wanted my daughter my daughter to see it. Um, oh, by by the
056way, I'm going to backtrack a little bit. Sorry about that. Something I neglected to mention is that um in 2018 I took my middle daughter to Papu Nagini and we walked the entirety of the Ghost Mountain Trail. She was 15 years old and that's a pretty humbling experience when you're 15 15year-old daughter can out hike you. But we started a charity for the people along the trail. the the the the native Papa New Guineians who helped the the the soldiers so so much have never been thanked by the United States government for their service unlike say the um Philippine the Filipinos Philippine scouts. So we have established a health care center along the trail which um where people are dying of cuts where women are dying in childbirth. So we started the first healthc care
057al along along that trail and we also started the first trekking company which is now a nativeowned and operated trekking company which can take adventure trekers and historians now on that trail. So that was that was something I wanted to mention. So forgive me for the backtrack. But now on to um um braving it. So, uh, I took my daughter on three trips up to Arctic, Alaska. On the first trip, we built a cabin for Himo, and it was the worst bug season in the Arctic in 30 years. Plastered on the Fairbanks News Miner was worst bug season in in in um the Alaskan bush in 30 years. And we were building a cabin at that time. We built smudge fires every day to keep the mosquitoes away, but it didn't work. work and it
058was really really hard work. And my daughter who was at fif at 15, her job was to peel poles. And so she sat there with her headnet on peeling poles all day. Um and then we went up in we went up in winter. We made a winter trip. So I wanted my daughter to experience winter in the Arctic. And our third trip was kind of the culmination of everything. On our third trip, we backpacked over the Brooks Range and we caned out to the Arctic Ocean. And when we got to the Arctic Ocean, we went to a barrier island called Airy Island. And uh we couldn't wait. We we'd been on the trail for and on the river for 28 days. Um it w it was supposed to be a warm winter, a warm summer
059in the Arctic. In fact, the first day my my daughter was hiking and she had on a shirt that said California girl. And the next morning she put it out to dry in the sun and the next morning we woke up to five inches of snow and her California girl t-shirt was solid. It was was frozen solid. And then when we got to the river to canoe the river, it was supposed to be a class two or three river. and we encount encountered a river that was class three or that or class four and that that challenged us in ways I c I can't even describe but when we got to this when we got to this um barrier island called airy island we were elated we thought ah finally we get to go back
060to civilization so I called on a satphone our Anupiat captain and he said there's a big storm coming in you're going to be on the island for at least five to seven days So, we were trapped on that island by a storm by a storm. And we were trapped on that island with a polar bear. And um along the way, we'd seen lots and lots of grizzlies. And the grizzlies always ran. Um the grizzlies, you know, and the only thing you really have to worry about is a grizzly is is a s with cubs or a grizz or or a bear sitting on a kill. But in this case, the grizzlies all all ran. But the polar bear did not run. The polar bear became increasingly more more inquisitive and increas increasingly more aggressive. One
061day, my daughter and I were down um on the ocean and she was she was picking out she was picking out pretty rocks for her sisters and all of a sudden I looked and I saw this polar bear walking down the beach and I said to my daughter, I said, "Aden, I want you to get up very, very slowly." And she said, "Why, Dad?" And I said, "Because Aiden, there's a polar bear approaching us." and she looked at it and then we slowly slowly backed away and we were talking to the polar bear as we had talked to the grizzlies saying, you know, we don't mean you no harm. We're just here. We're just passing through. Everything's going to be okay. So, we eventually backed up and the polar bear fortunately did not attack us.
062But that night in the tent, I asked Aiden, I said, "Aden, you you didn't seem very worried about the polar bear. Why? Why? Why was it?" And she said, "Dad, were you frightened?" I said, "Yeah, I was terrified." And I said, "But you you didn't seem very scared." And she said, "Dad, I have to confess something." And I said, "What's that?" She said, "Well, the truth is I figured I only had to be faster than one person." So, my daughter was going to give me up to the polar bear. Anyway, I'll show you a quick video that I use um for my book talks um when I when we do the Braving It thing. And um then I'll make a few concluding remarks and and then you can all go. Let's see. [Music] [Applause] Heat.
063Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You're going through some of the most magnificent wilderness on the face of the planet. Uh but there are also great dangers. There were many times I wondered, what have I done? You know, is this irresponsible? it. Should I have brought my daughter up here? When we were on the river on the Hula Hula River, she was the bowman in the canoe and the bowman picks the line on the river and dictates the strokes. So my dad had told me what my job would be beforehand. Um so when I was going through I was you know giving small suggestion and I kind of meekly say well I think pedal on the left pedal on the left but you know I was still most of my trust was in my dad to
064tell me what to do and he tried yelling over the rapids and Aiden do this do that you know over the roar of the river I couldn't hear anything my my eyes were and my instincts were telling me to go one way he was telling me to go the other and it was just a disaster. The next morning I said, "Dad, you're gonna have to trust me. I'm not going to get all of them right." And I didn't, but I know what I see. I learned to shut up and to trust her. And that was incredibly hard. It was a complete role reversal. Every parent grapples with the the conflict between kind of loving their children, you [Music] know, and letting that kid go. That's the hardest thing in the world to do. And so
065I did get some things wrong, but I improved. And by the end, I was shouting back to him and I was the boss of the canoe and he was just he was taking my orders. It was actually a little bit fun, too. I mean, to get the chance to yell at your dad is is you don't often get that [Music] chance. Okay. Well, thank you all. I really I really appreciate it. Um uh I I'm going to do one one shameless pitch. We have a a new show, a new documentary, three episode documentary series that's appearing on ne Netflix. It's called Golden Greed. It's about this eccentric millionaire from Santa Fe, New Mexico, who hid a treasure chest of worth two of of of gold coins and jewels in the Rocky Mountains. And he wrote
066a poem that people could use to decipher where it was. And he said, "It is somewhere in the Rocky Mountains." And he started he wanted to get people away from their telephones and away from their computers. and he started the the the largest treasure hunt in American history. 500 people participated in it. So if you get a chance, watch Golden Greed. All right. Thank you very much for your patience and your interest. I really appreciate and again to the committee, thank you so much. I'm I'm grateful and honored. How about one more round of applause for our recipients, our award recipients tonight. James Campbell, Chuck, and Jeanie Stungle down here. Give him a round of applause. And uh as we start to wrap up our program here, uh some additional uh thank yous need to
067be made. Um, I want to thank How about a nice round of applause for our presenters, Carol, Steve, and Jeff. Can you give them a round of applause, please? We thank them for uh their kind words tonight. I want to thank uh Taher Food Service for the reception out in the uh lobby. Give them a round of applause. Uh can I ask anybody who's on the wall of fame committee that's in attendance, please stand and be recognized, would you please? have several folks here. Yep, there we go. Thank you so much for all of you. Um, I too would like to thank Mary Poshima because uh about a week and a half ago, I got a phone call asking if I could be the MC for tonight. Apparently, there was another person who had another
068commitment, had to back out, and uh I didn't have a lot of time to get ready for this. I was in Texas for the last week and stepped off an airplane in Milwaukee about 8:30 last night. Uh so Mary uh was able to email me what I needed and get me ready in a very short amount of time. So Mary, thank you very much for that. I I really appreciate that. I I was honored to be your second choice. I I really I was. And um as we wrap it up here, just want to make one announcement is that photos are going to be taken at the wall of fame display just outside the auditorium here. Uh so don't go too far. We'll get some uh photo opportunities out there with our award winners. Uh
069with that, I think that will conclude our program for this evening. Again, congratulations to our award recipients and I bid you all a very pleasant good evening. Thank you.