Iowa Congressman Steve King said Friday, that he will be honoring Sioux City resident and wounded Vietnam Army Veteran, Dennis Roberts on Tuesday, August 21st, with medals Roberts did not formally receive previously for his service. The ceremony takes place at 12:30-p.m., in Congressman King’s office in Sioux City.  Roberts is slated to receive the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, the Air-, Army Commendation-, National Defense- and other, similar medals, in addition to his Combat Infantryman badge, and sharpshooter badge and rifle bar.

Roberts served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from March 1969 to June 1970. During that year he was a reconnaissance scout assigned to search and destroy missions with the 101 St. Airborne Divisions.  On Christmas Day in 1969, his 25 member platoon landed and split up into groups.  The landing zone or “L-Z” was hot, with the soldiers came under enemy fire. In the fire-fight, Roberts came into contact with a booby trap. The explosion blew-off his right thumb. Shrapnel also pierced hit his right arm and lower back. Roberts suffers from permanent loss of hand motion as a result of his injuries.

Discussion between the driver of a pickup and her passenger Friday afternoon about a turkey in a field, resulted in a rollover accident southeast of Red Oak. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department says Mary K. Bailey and her passenger, Erica R. Jackson, both of Red Oak, suffered from minor injuries following the accident, which happened at around 6:30-p.m., near the intersection of 210th and K Avenue.

Officials say Bailey was driving a 1993 Chevy pickup southbound on K Avenue and speaking with Jackson. The discussion was about a turkey Jackson saw in a field on the east side of the road. When Bailey turned to look at the wild bird, she missed her turn onto eastbound 210th Street. When she realized her mistake and attempted to negotiate the turn, the pickup skidded off the south side of the road, entered a ditch and rolled onto its side. The damage was estimated at $3,000.

Some two-thousand volunteers will be painting several dozen homes in Council Bluffs and Omaha today (Saturday) as part of a community-wide beautification and weatherization effort. Tom Pettigrew is executive director of the 24th annual Brush-Up Paint-A-Thon. He says it helps low-income elderly residents and people with disabilities to maintain their properties. Out of some 210 applications, about 75 houses will be painted. Nearly 75 companies, businesses and individuals donated all the materials that are being used for the project.

Pettigrew explained the qualifications for getting your home’s exterior freshened up with a new coat of paint: You need to be over 62 years old or be permanently disabled at any age, you must own the home, no rentals, and meet certain financial guidelines. Some volunteers started earlier in the week with scraping off the old, flaking paint and getting the houses coated with a primer.
They’ll prime any bare wood, put down a top coat of paint and then caulk, too, to weatherize the homes. In the past 24 years, more than 24-hundred homes in the metro area have been painted by volunteers through the program.