By Jasmine Hall

Enterprise Staff Writer

World War II veteran and former Livingston resi-dent Joe Garr, 94, has

donated his personal World War II memorabilia to the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County, and among the items is a trunk he shipped home to Park County as “dead man’s possessions.”

In honor of Veterans’ Day, the museum has

revamped its Pioneer Room’s military exhib-it “Honoring Park County Veterans” since its unveiling two years ago. YGM has added new items and stories about residents, or former residents, who served their country for its Veterans Day Event tonight from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and among the new additions are possessions Garr had clung to for decades.

Garr’s memorabilia, including singed pho-tos of pinup girls as well as medals and ser-vice badges, will be shown in its own display, but the most unique item is an Australian-crafted trunk with signatures of about 160 World War II servicemen. Although Garr was unavailable to comment, YGM Director Paul Shea and YGM Registrar Karen Reinhart spoke about the trunk’s significance and Liv-ingston connection.

“(Garr) wanted (the trunk) to stay in Liv-ingston,” Shea said. “He said, ‘When I’m ready to give it up, it’s going to Livingston, where I grew up.’”

Even after having been approached by a well-known Louisiana World War II museum, which wanted to procure his trunk after see-ing it at a convention, Garr kept his items local.

“(Louisiana) wanted it really bad,” Shea said. “(Garr) told me that twice, and he said, ‘They bugged me for about four or five years.’”

Garr worked at the Yellowstone Hotel, for-merly located on Main Street, and postwar, as a recreation director — building the Liv-

ingston’s pool. Born and raised in Livingston, and currently living in Bozeman, Garr did not budge on sending his memorabilia to per-manently reside in Livingston, despite the large museum’s persistence.

“He had it in his head for a long, long time,” Shea said. “That when he was ready to give this stuff up that it would come here to Livingston.”

Reinhart, explained Garr, was a draftsman for the 411th Engineer Battalion, Company C., and had the trunk made while in northern Australia. Garr had asked an Australian car-penter to build a trunk for his items and Garr himself added the artwork of a red-haired

pinup girl to its lid. “Girls were real popular during World War

II,” Shea explained of Garr’s drawing. “They used to paint them on the noses of airplanes.”

While the trunk is functional and artistic, what makes the artifact unique are the signa-tures and hometown listings of Garr’s fellow servicemen.

As Garr’s unit prepared to invade the Phil-ippines by boat, he posted a sign above the trunk reading, “Sign this box or I’ll tell your mother that you’re in jail.”

Wednesday, November 11, 2015 106 27 75¢ENTERPRISE

t h e l i v i n g s t o n Spread the Warmth:

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A TRUNK OF MEMORIES

State seeking new case against Colvin

Photo courtesy of Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park CountyFrom left, Hardy Pugliano and Joe Garr, both of Livingston, stand next to an unidentified man from Spokane, Washington, in this undated war-time photograph.

Enterprise photo by Hunter D’AntuonoVeteran Ralph Hanks, 87, pushes a wheelchair stacked with folded U.S. flags as they are raised around Sacajawea Park for the Livings-ton American Legion’s annual “Avenue of Flags.” Hanks, a resident of Montana since 1956, served in the U.S. Army Third Infantry in Italy, where one of his primary responsibilities was standing guard over German prisoners. Hanks’ nephew, Vaughn Mills, said his uncle has assisted with the Legion’s flag ceremony every year since it started in the 1980s. “He takes pride in doing this,” said Mills.

Yellowstone Gateway Museum honors WWII veterans of Park County with new exhibit

See Memories, Page 3

Enterprise photo by Hunter D’AntuonoWorld War II veteran Joe Garr’s trunk, signed by over 160 of the war’s servicemen, is pictured at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County, Tuesday evening. Garr drew the artwork of the pinup girl on the trunk’s lid.

BEIRUT (AP) — The international communi-ty is mounting its most serious effort yet to end the nearly 5-year-old Syrian war, rallying around a second round of talks in Vienna this weekend amid the emergence of a Russian proposal that calls for early elections.

But the global push for peace so far excludes any of the Syrian players, and experts say any hasty decisions risk leading to even greater bloodshed.

While world leaders seem to be in agreement that the time has come to put an end to the car-nage in Syria that has killed more than 250,000 people, there is still no clear roadmap on how to get there.

Still, the stepped up diplomatic activity, cou-pled with the U.S. decision to send special operation troops into northern Syria — some-thing the Obama administration had long sought to avoid — reflects a new urgency and a shift in dealing with the world’s most intran-sigent conflict.

The Russian proposal calls for drafting a new constitution within 18 months that would be put to a popular referendum and be fol-lowed by an early presidential election. But it makes no mention of Syrian President Bashar Assad stepping down during the transition — a key opposition demand and a sticking point in all previous negotiations to end the civil war.

Russia’s military intervention in Syria has raised Moscow’s profile when it comes to Syria and given Russian President Vladimir Putin a stronger say in how to end the conflict.

“This is really the first serious effort on the part of the United States and Russia to bridge the divide, to come up with some concrete ideas about the broad contours of a diplomatic settlement,” said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics.

The divides have narrowed considerably, he said, adding that the Americans and the Rus-sians now seem to see eye-to-eye on restruc-turing the political system by drafting a new constitution and holding early elections.

The involvement of Russia and Iran, two key allies of Assad, is essential in any talks on Syr-ia. Iran had been excluded from last year’s talks in Switzerland, but attended the talks two weeks ago in Vienna along with its arch regional rival, Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the rebels fighting to topple Assad.

The Syria conflict has turned into a proxy war between regional and international foes, and observers have long said that any attempt to end the fighting will have to come from an agreement between the warring parties’ regional backers, who can then strong-arm the groups they support into making the necessary concessions.

Global push for end to Syria war seen as most serious yet

RAISING THE FLAGS

By Samantha Hill

Enterprise Staff Writer

The state of Montana is attempting to appeal a local shooting case in the Montana Supreme Court, after its dismissal last June.

Daniel Colvin was charged with attempted deliberate homicide in Sixth Judicial District Court in Park County after al legedly shooting Michael Aja in the head on Oct. 9, 2014, in Livingston while Aja sat in his Jeep Cher-okee. According to court doc-uments, the two were in a heated argument at Colvin’s trailer before Aja attempted to drive away and Colvin shot him.

District Court dismissed the case against Col-vin after the state released the Jeep Cherokee back into Aja’s custody in November 2014 before Colvin’s defense team was able to exam-ine the vehicle. The vehicle contained blood splatter from the victim, according to court documents.

Following the dismissal, the state filed an appeal with the Montana Supreme Court. Assis-tant Attorney General Katie F. Schulz and Chief Deputy Attorney of Park County Kathleen Car-rick filed a brief on Nov. 5 stating the reasons for an appeal.

In the brief, the state argued there was no evidence presented or a hearing to discuss whether the release of the vehicle would have changed the outcome of the case.

“By not holding a hearing, the court not only blindly accepted Colvin’s version of ‘facts,’ but failed to consider evidence the state could have presented,” the brief noted.

Due to the Veterans Day holiday today, the Attorney General’s Office and the Park County Attorney’s Office were unavailable for com-ment.

In the court documents earlier this year requesting the dismissal, Colvin’s attorney, Karl Knuchel, said Aja’s Jeep was “exculpatory evidence” and by releasing the Jeep to Aja, the evidence was lost. Knuchel was unavailable Wednesday morning for comment.

Knuchel will have an opportunity to respond to the brief filed by Schulz and Carrick.

If the Supreme Court finds the District Court did not have a right to dismiss the case, it may be sent back to District Court and retried.

DANIELCOLVIN