The Big Story Becomes Local-

Anderson Passing Recalls Shared Reporting Efforts

Associated Press Foreign Correspondent Terry Anderson was taken hostage in 1985. Photo: AP

I never met Terry Anderson. However, the former Middle East hostage, a reporter for the Associated Press news service, brought back many memories from the years when I worked as a television journalist.

Anderson died on April 20 at the age of seventy-six. It had been thirty-three years since his captors freed him.

Back in 1985, I was working in a local television newsroom in Rochester, New York. Terry Anderson was once a resident of western New York, making his story a local one for our television audience.

It seemed as though every night for weeks following the start of his ordeal, we would run stories about his capture and try to make sense of the efforts to secure his release.

His sister Peggy jumped into the mix within days of his becoming a hostage.

She was engaging with the US State Department, trying to find answers. Over the coming weeks, her frustration was apparent in her routine appearances on the local newscast.

Terry thanked his sister Peggy for her efforts on the homefront to keep his captivity on the forefront of the minds of the public. Photo: Pool coverage from Wiesbaden, Germany, 1991.

It took a lot of work to put up with the apparent lack of progress our government was experiencing.

The weeks turned into months.

Like many other stories that go on for an extended period of time, the audience grew weary, and the news editors slowly removed the story from “front and center” awareness.

But Terry’s sister Peggy did not give up hope. Her perseverance paid off in late 1991. Anderson was released.

By then, I had moved to another station in Rochester, serving as Executive Producer.

Our station was part of an effort with a local radio station to be among the reporters who would meet with him upon his release in Germany.

We covered the return from captivity, asked questions at Terry’s first news conference as a free man, and brought the story home for our viewers.

Some takeaways from the events surrounding Terry’s release were easy to see at the news conference.

He made great efforts to thank his sister, Peggy, for keeping the pressure on the US government to end his captivity.

All he wanted to do was be with his family, including a daughter born within months of his capture.

Terry shared his story in an interview with the Bob Graham Center for Public Service on the thirtieth anniversary of his release by Hezbollah captors. Photo: Graham Center.

An embossed card arrived in our newsroom mail within weeks of Anderson’s return to the United States. It was a mass-produced thank you card that he sent to every news outlet in western New York and probably to national news organizations in New York City and Washington, DC.

He did not know our names, but he knew that the news media had kept the story alive for six years collectively.

He wanted us to know how much it was appreciated.

Terry’s life after captivity appears to have had more downs than ups.

The Associated Press report of his death stated he received millions of dollars from US-held frozen Iranian assets.

Yet, according to the AP, he filed for bankruptcy five years ago. He wrote a book about his hostage ordeal, appeared on the popular Phil Donahue program, and lived out of the limelight.

The AP reported he made unsuccessful investments, taught college students, and dabbled in business enterprises with limited success.

Terry Anderson was the most prominent face in those pictures of Americans who were taken captive by Middle Eastern kidnappers in the 1980s.

His story was kept at the forefront of local news outlets thanks to the tireless efforts of his sister, Peggy.

He was a man who remembered the efforts of the many journalists to keep his story alive. His gratitude is his legacy.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He was a television journalist for several local stations from 1979 to 1994.

Though unrelated to the Terry Anderson story, his new book Rocket Reporter reflects on his years covering the Space Shuttle's early missions as a local reporter in northern Alabama.

The book is available at Lulu.com    

Seven from the Wall-

Remembering Soldiers Listed on the Vietnam Memorial- Wall that Heals

By Steve Newvine

The Wall that Heals on display in front of Merced College. Photo: Steve Newvine

There are over fifty-eight thousand names on the “Wall that Heals”.

This column is about seven of them.

The Merced community has been honored to host the Wall that Heals, the three-quarter representation of the Vietnam War Memorial.

The Merced Breakfast Rotary Club, the group that started the Field of Honor flag tribute on the grounds of Merced College over the past several years, was primarily responsible for getting the traveling exhibit to the community.

For the few days leading up to and including Easter Sunday, the wall allowed many of us to honor the brave soldiers who were killed in action during the Vietnam War.

My family had a soldier who fought and came home from Vietnam. US Army Specialist Four William Newvine served in 1966 and 1967. He made it back but was killed nine months later in an automobile crash.

I wrote about Bill both in this space and in a book (Finding Bill, Lulu Press). He did not talk much about the experience, and I was too young to probe.

Only in my later years, with the help of a man who has made it his life work to honor those who served in the same company as my uncle, did I get to piece together his story. 

As I wrote my book, he connected me with soldiers who knew my uncle. When I told him I was going to Washington, D.C., on business, he asked if I would check in on seven soldiers named on the wall. The book tells the stories of the men who knew my uncle and those from his unit who were killed in action.  

Here is a summary of seven of the more than fifty-eight thousand brave soldiers honored on the wall.

Seven soldiers who served alongside my uncle in Vietnam and who lost their lives on the battlefield. Photos from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (vvmf.org). Photo illustration by Steve Newvine

Armand Auffiere, Donald Evans, and John Faidley were killed on January 27, 1967, in the jungle about two miles from their base camp, attacking a bunker complex manned by Vietcong.

Their unit was hit hard, with two platoons devastated and a third going inactive for weeks after this battle.

Don is the first Medic to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Two medical buildings are named in his honor.

Joseph Noel died Jan 14, 1967. He was killed by artillery rounds that were accidentally sent into his column in response to a fire mission called when the Vietcong were spotted near a rubber plantation.

Tom Nickerson and Clint Smith were killed on March 15, 1967, when attacked while dumping garbage by Vietcong rummaging through the area looking for anything useful. The dump area had been moved, and the new site had no security to protect the men.

Larry Barton was killed on March 21, 1967, at the height of the conflict known as the Battle of Suoi Tre. He was filling in a foxhole as his unit was moving out.

The company was part of a mission that came to the rescue of a firebase that was close to being overrun by the enemy on that day.  

The battle was successful but at a tremendous cost. Larry was among thirty-one Americans killed. It’s estimated the enemy lost eight hundred soldiers, although the official count was six hundred forty-four.

The unit received the Presidential Unit Citation, a prestigious award only ever given during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

My uncle knew these men. He even wrote about Tom and Clint in a letter to his sister, Betty. Thankfully, images of those letters have been saved.

The Wall that Heals at night in front of Merced College. Photo: Steve Newvine

The pictures of the seven men who served alongside my uncle were found at the website for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. 

I learned a lot about these men thanks to the dedication of Bill Comeau, who runs the Alpha Association, which connects veterans, especially those from the Vietnam era.

Bill was a company clerk in the War and knew of my uncle. He recalled when he saw Bill Newvine return from a harrowing mission.

“The look on these men’s faces was that of sheer terror. But not Bill. He had a look of serenity, a calmness that communicated maybe he knew more than the rest of us.”  

My uncle Bill Newvine and one of the letters he wrote to family members in my hometown of Port Leyden, New York. Photo: Steve Newvine

Bill Newvine died more than a decade before the Vietnam Memorial opened. I always believed that he would have visited Washington, DC, to pay his respects to his fellow soldiers.  

Losing someone you know is hard enough. Losing seven who served under the conditions of war is hard for many of us to imagine.

I made that visit for him in 2012 in Washington, DC, and this year here in Merced at the Wall that Heals.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Finding Bill is still available at Finding Bill - A Nephew’s Search for Meaning in his Uncle’s Life and Death (lulu.com)

Steve is grateful to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and its website vmf.org for information and pictures of the seven soldiers who served with his uncle in Vietnam and who lost their lives in the War.

The Biggest, Sweetest Smile-

Governor Schwarzenegger’s UC Merced 2005 Visit Recalls a Special Memory

On September 1, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met this young fan while visiting the UC Merced Campus. Photo: (C) Roger J. Wyan, All Rights Reserved

Pictures from the 2005 visit by Arnold Schwarzenegger to UC Merced were recently posted to social media, and they show a side of the former Governor few have seen.

The photographs show the Governor getting the attention of a young and seemingly shy boy. The boy, likely a pre-teen, was among the hundreds of area residents who came to the campus on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend: September 1, 2005.

The young boy was Minhaz Azam, and like many in the crowd that day, he probably thought he might get a glimpse of the Governor.

After an amazing career starring in the first three Terminator movies, Schwarzenegger was elected in a memorable 2003 recall election that saw the office transition from Gray Davis to the actor-turned-politician.

The pictures were taken by professional photographer Roger J. Wyan who was on duty that day with his camera. “I was and I still am in a unique position to experience the development of the campus,” Roger said.

Roger’s connection to UC Merced began in the late 1980s when he was chief photographer for the Merced Sun-Star covering the story of how the tenth campus of the University of California system came to be located in Merced. His photographs have documented every major development of the new campus.

“I do not know why Minhaz was attending the Governor's visit except that it was The Terminator visiting,” Roger recalls. It appeared Minhaz may have had some affiliation with the University given his shirt.”

Roger was in a position to capture the image of the most important person in California at the time. The Governor stopped his hurried pace to meet the young constituent.

Roger writes in a recent social media post: “Arnold lifted Azam's chin and said a few words of encouragement which brought a smile. The Governor later met up with Azam away from the crowd.”

Shortly after meeting Minhaz Azam in the crowd during his 2005 UC Merced visit, the Governor was able to spend a little more time with the young visitor. Photo: (C) Roger J. Wyan, All Rights Reserved

It was that later encounter that really touched the people who witnessed it as well as Roger J. Wyan. From the same post, Roger wrote “The governor gave Azam a big bear hug.”

It was a special moment early in the first year at UC Merced.

A visit from the Governor, a promise of continued state support for the institution, and as Roger wrote, “It brought the biggest, sweetest and heartfelt smile I’ve ever seen.”

Efforts to track down Minhaz now have yet to pay off, but there’s little doubt it was a special moment for him.

Roger has been engaged with the UC Merced community since those early days. He taught photography there for a couple of years, and he’s been on the scene for such special moments such as the groundbreaking, the first graduation, and Michelle Obama’s commencement address as First Lady in 2009.

He’s nearing the twentieth anniversary of starting the Transitions Project, a study of the first UC Merced students. The project details what some students have been doing since attending the University.

Those students likely have some fascinating stories to tell, and the Transitions Project will share those stories in the coming years.

But for Roger, September 1, 2005, remains a special memory.

That’s when the Governor took a few moments from his busy schedule to greet and hug young Minhaz Azam. It remains a memorable moment.

“It was pure joy to witness then,” he says. “And still is to this day.”

Steve Newvine has lived in Merced for eighteen years.

One of the first invitations he accepted upon arriving in the City was from UC Merced to attend the first commencement ceremony in 2006.

Steve’s book Beaten Paths & Back Roads is available for sale at the Merced County Courthouse Museum Gift Shop, or online at https://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-newvine/beaten-paths-and-back-roads/paperback/product-emmv6r.html?q=beaten+paths+steve+newvine&page=1&pageSize=4

Filling Up the Space-

New Building Downtown Will Complete Property Across from City Hall

The new office under construction on West Eighteenth Street in downtown Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

Before a grader can start clearing the property, before concrete can be poured, a lot of work goes into creating a unique cluster of buildings.

Another new office building is under construction on a key parcel of land in downtown Merced.

A two-story office that will house the Merced County Employees Retirement Association (MCERA) is expected to open later this year. The office is under construction adjacent to the Merced College Business Resource Center at 630 West Eighteenth Street.  

In recent years, downtown Merced has been the center of activity with new construction of office and retail space.  

The building will eventually house the Merced County Employees Retirement Association (MCERA). Photo: Steve Newvine

This particular block is the star example of that surge. A parking structure and the space where the West America Bank sits helped kick off the renewal of the block. 

The opening of the Merced College Business Resource building in the early part of the last decade added to the activity on the site.

In 2018, the University of California (UC) Merced Downtown Campus Center opened right across the street from City Hall. As noted in a column here six years ago, that opening solidified the link between the City and the UC with that strategic location.  

The new building under construction is in the same block as the UC Merced Downtown Campus Center seen here in a photo from the grand opening of 2018. Photo: Steve Newvine

Together with the rehabilitation of the Tioga building and the opening of the El Capitan Hotel just a short walk away, these projects have fueled new interest in downtown Merced.

This has been seen as a good sign by visitors to the City, the elected leaders, and the citizens who have lived here for years.  

Each new construction brings more workers downtown. Those employees generate economic activity in restaurants and retail establishments.

The Merced County Employees Retirement Association's new office will be next door to the Merced College Downtown Business Resource Center 

“Yes it will,” said Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto acknowledging the positive impact of this project. “(We) need more people down there.”

Downtown Merced suffered a hit last summer with the sudden closing of the Bitwise facility. But with new projects in the pipeline, there is cause for optimism.  

The area has seen more new construction than in any other time in recent history.

Little by little, the space is filling up.

Steve Newvine marks his twentieth year living in California, spending eighteen years in Merced.

His new book Rocket Reporter, looks back at his career as a television news reporter covering the first three space shuttle launches in the early 1980s. The book is available at ROCKET REPORTER (lulu.com)