Reporter, Veteran Opposites But Still Alike In At Least One Way

Ken Olsen is 40. Vernon Baker is 77.

Olsen is a college-educated newspaper reporter. Baker is a former career soldier. Olsen is white. Baker is black.

They would seem to be complete opposites in every way.

But they have one defining similarity: They’re both natives of Wyoming.

And that, Olsen explains, is why he was able to get close enough to the St. Maries resident to help him write his autobiography.

Baker will read from that biography, “Lasting Valor,” at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

That Baker deserves an autobiography is not in doubt. On one day in Italy during World War II, Baker led a group of black soldiers in an attack on a seemingly impregnable German position. When the attack was over, 19 men from Baker’s platoon were dead. And he was hailed, by some, as a hero.

But not by others. Denied the Medal of Honor that many of his fellow black infantrymen thought he deserved, Baker instead was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest military honor. And matters rested at that.

And then last year Baker’s wartime exploits were rediscovered. This time he was awarded the Medal of Honor, making him the only living black recipient of the award for World War II service.

It was while doing the first, breaking story for The Spokesman-Review that Olsen, who works in this newspaper’s Idaho bureau, got to know the Army veteran. He discovered that they had Wyoming in common.

And that - more than age, more than life experience, more even than color - made the difference.

“There are very few of us,” Olsen says, speaking of Wyoming natives. “I’m serious. It’s the least-populated state in the nation. And it’s an instant green stamp.”

Also, he adds, “Vernon and I get each other, which really helps. We just kind of operate in the same mental plane.”

Olsen stumbled onto the story while working the Saturday the wire story broke. He looked up Baker’s phone number, called him and things developed from there.

Eventually, Olsen would write a three-part Spokesman-Review series about Baker’s life, keying on the ex-soldier’s wartime exploits. And even early on, they suspected a book might be possible.

Olsen worked the project by the numbers. Laboring on weekends and nights, he drafted a book proposal that included a sample chapter and a chapter-by-chapter outline. He mailed a dozen copies out so that they would arrive on book agents’ desks the Monday following the Jan. 13 awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

It worked. “There was one agent who was so excited that she tracked me down in Washington and said, ‘OK, I want to do this.”’

They made a deal, which posed an immediate problem: The first draft of the complete book was due in two months. Olsen took a leave of absence and visited Italy with Baker, and the two continued their soul-searching conversations.

“Basically, I interviewed him over and over again,” Olsen says. “I just spent a hell of a lot of time trying to get inside his mind and figure out how he felt about things. Trying to elicit emotion is extraordinarily difficult.”

In more ways that one. Baker, Olsen says, is guarded with his emotions. But during one hotel-room talk just before their Italy trip, while talking about the men who had died, Baker broke down in tears.

But they persevered. Olsen would write, Baker would look the material over, suggest revisions or make corrections, and Olsen would write some more. In the end, Olsen’s newspaper-trained discipline carried them through.

“With a deadline like that hanging over your head, you don’t really think about a whole lot else,” he said. “You just crank.”

World War II veteran Vernon Baker will sign books from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. today at The Bookseller, 311 Sherman Ave. in Coeur d’Alene; Baker will read from his book Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington; and he will sign books from 2-5:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Paper House in St. Maries. The leather-bound edition ($110) and a limited-edition first printing of the book ($55) are available only at Auntie’s and at The Bookseller in Coeur d’Alene.

A call for poems

Floating Bridge Press in Seattle is calling for chapbook manuscripts with a maximum of 24 pages of poetry.

The winning poet will receive $500, 50 copies of a limited-edition, archival-quality chapbook and a Seattle-area reading.

The contest is open to Washington residents only and entries will not be returned. All entrants will also receive a copy of the winning chapbook and entries will be considered for inclusion in the Pontoon, the Floating Bridge Press poetry anthology.

Entry fee is $10 and the postmark deadline is Feb. 15. Send entries or obtain more information (send a SASE) from Floating Bridge Press, P.O. Box 18814, Seattle, WA 98118.

Reader board

Local pilot Gladys Dawson Buroker will sign copies of her autobiography “Wind In My Face” Friday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Book & Game Company at Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene.

Clearwater River poet Gary Gildner will read from his work Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Idaho.

Roland Cheek, the author of “Learning to Talk Bear,” will do a book-signing Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Book & Game Company in Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene.

Spokane writer Frank Bartel will read from his novel “World That Never Was” Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at B. Dalton at NorthTown Mall.

Spokane writer Layne Spencer will sign copies of her book “And Five Were Hanged,” Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore. Spencer wrote the book in 1968 but it went out of print in 1993. It has been reprinted, again in paperback, and is $5.99. The book contains “11 murders and one sex story” from the turn of the century in Central Idaho, says the author.

Regional author Phil Perry will autograph copies of his book “The Cookbook For Men Who Love Women That Don’t Cook” Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Book & Game Company at Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene.

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