Airbase romance links Culbertson to New Jersey

One of my high school classmates, MHS Class of 1955, shared the following story, concerning her family, with me: In the time frame of about 1945/46, LaVern Edwards, Goldie’s older sister, was working at Cudahy Cheese Factory in Culbertson. She was walking on the street, and a soldier from the McCook Army Air Base stopped to talk to her. His name is Pete Curcio from Lyndhurst, New Jersey and a romance began that led to him and LaVern being married in April 1947 at the Stone Church. Not an unusual event for lonely young men to meet attractive young ladies working at the base or residing in surrounding communities, and even this community in Southwest Nebraska has benefitted by it.

Lavern’s younger sister Goldie, attended McCook High School. She then worked at the Gazette for a year and a half after graduating in 1955. Corresponding with sister LaVern, Goldie then visited Lyndhurst, N.J., to pursue a higher-paying job and planned to eventually go back home with all her money. Didn’t happen as she married Anthony Paolazzi in Lyndhurst in November 1958 and has resided in N.J. since. Sadly, Anthony was stricken with COVID and passed away during the height of that epidemic. Widow Goldie continues to reside there, but her ties to this area are not forgotten.

Lavern and Goldie had two brothers, Joe and Lee, who spent their lives in this area, both establishing shops that primarily did iron work. Self-taught, these gents could repair anything from automobiles to farm machinery. They also maintained the home site south of Culbertson.

Then my friend Goldie sent us a handwritten note titled, “Population Explosion Due to McCook Army Airbase.”

In cursive, Goldie wrote: On Dec 13, my great niece organized a get together which they named the “Edwards Party’ and made a requirement that everyone had to wear a Nebraska shirt. I volunteered the house and catered food, and they all did the set-up, clean-up and all work, including bringing desserts. My sectional couch in the living room held a lot of people. We lucked out because snow came the next morning.”

Goldie then named all the 30 persons that gathered to show their pride in their roots from coming from this part of the great state of Nebraska.

McCook accepted and welcomed the great influx of temporary residents that resided here some 80 years ago. Now we are host to an I.C.E. facility that is the hub of surrounding states for detaining illegal immigrants while processing them for deportation. Note the fair number of cars in their parking lot to estimate the number of staff assigned to do the work required. Our governor has stated that the facility will be temporary, so will the staff remain or choose to stay when the facility eventually closes?

Your old columnist learned that prisoners in McCook’s Immigration Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) facility, popularly known as the Cornhusker Clink, are transported to Omaha by bus. Actually, it is a large bus armored against passenger escape. Each passenger is shackled hand and foot, and two armed guards are present inside observing their behavior. The bus driver is also enclosed in a protective compartment. Interesting to me is that the shackled individuals, reportedly, all seem to be eager for the journey back “home,” according to personnel that I visit with.

My question was, “Why the trip to Omaha for the prisoners to fly home when McCook’s airport is much closer to our Cornhusker Clink?” I was intrigued to learn that the reason for not using the shorter bus ride was a result of McCook’s local demonstrations against the I.C.E. facility and that “they didn’t feel welcome.”

Our McCook I.C.E facility serves as the hub for Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and several other adjacent states. Possible newly incarcerated illegal immigrants are brought from Omaha on the prisoner bus return trip for further processing here, saving a bit on transportation costs. Then, too, maybe their trip back “home” will be on larger airliners too big to use the McCook Airport. Still, it looks to this old aviator that having prisoners not load at the McCook Airport looks like a lost economic opportunity for our area.

Speaking of welcome, I note the crude signs along Highway 83 a ways south of the Cornhusker Clink. Conveniently, those signs are just west of the new building Sports Complex and appear to address that expensive project. Seems appropriate to me!

That is how I saw it.