-Submitted photo
Roger Bumann has been active in the Mcnamara Moore Post 61 of the American Legion for many years. Bumann is pictured second from the left in the color guard.

IDA GROVE — Roger Bumann is a farming fixture in Ida County’s seat. He can be seen often at the Farm Bureau, where he is a board member. Folks he’s just met and friends he’s known for years enjoy conversations with him at The Farmacy Soda Fountain & Coffee Shop. He’s also present Thursday nights at the farmer’s market, grilling pork products for the crowds as he’s done for decades.

Bumann got his conversational skills from his father Ray.

“When I was a kid, I would go with Dad to the Sioux City Stockyards with a load of hogs,” said Bumann. “We would get there early in the morning, and it would be noon before he got done talking with buyers and commission men.”

Farrowing 25 to 40 sows each spring and fall was a proud beginning for a farmer who has now become, in many ways, the patriarch of Ida Grove pork producers.

Before becoming a full-time farmer, he served his country by signing up for the Army National Guard.

Roger Bumann

“It was February of 1966 when I joined,” said Bumann. “November 14 was my first day of basic training in Fort Polk, Louisiana; there I was certified to operate an M14 rifle and an M16 machine gun. In April of 1967, I attended advanced training at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado.”

After taking part in a two-week training camp in Minnesota, Bumann was assigned to Cherokee’s National Guard Company B.

“We were a mechanized outfit,” said Bumann. “We had an armored track vehicle that held a squad of 11 men, which included a driver and commander. In 1968, there were riots breaking out over the Vietnam War, so we took riot training on the streets of Cherokee. We marched in a V down the streets which was the tactic to break up crowds.”

In between training sessions, Bumann would help his father Ray, brothers Alvin, Earl, and Ray Jr., and brother-in-law Tom with farming on the weekends while running a fabrication shear for a manufacturer in Cherokee during the week.

In May of 1968, Bumann’s guard unit became activated to full Army status.

“The big Tet Offensive began in January and that’s why we were activated,” said Bumann, who was a sergeant squad leader when activated to Army status. “We were then part of the 2nd Battalion in Sioux City, specifically the 133rd Infantry. I went to Panama for jungle training where it was 100 degrees when we stepped off the plane at midnight.”

For three weeks in Panama, Bumann’s squad set up ambushes and dropped into a 400-foot wide river from a rope line and performed other jungle training.

“Thank goodness they had boats in the river,” said Bumann, “because I was not that good of a swimmer back then. The rope chafed us badly, and we knew it when we hit the saltwater.”

His squad also took part in an “Escape and Evasion” 10,000-meter course where his group had to go the distance without getting captured.

From there, Bumann traveled to Fort Riley, Kansas, for non-commissioned officer (NCO) training, where he scored ninth in a class of 125 men, receiving a letter of commendation from the battalion commander. Bumann had then earned an additional rank as staff sergeant E6; it was 1969, and he was also a platoon sergeant governing 44 men.

“A lot of guys were being pulled from our company to go to Vietnam,” said Bumann. “There were E7s and officers who were going. I asked to go, but with my new rank, I was told to stay home and lead our third platoon. At times, I was required to be out front of the full company, and I would have to report to the battalion officer.”

Part of his duty — aside from roll call, calisthenics, and rifle practice — was to set up a compass course for his men to help them learn how to navigate.

Meeting Iowa Gov. Harold Hughes while training at Fort Carson is one memory Bumann never forgot; Hughes was born and raised in Ida Grove earning the nickname “Pach” — short for pachyderm — which he earned due to his large football-playing stature.

“Gov. Hughes was greeting us individually,” said Bumann. “Hughes knew Dad and my older brothers, so I pulled my strap, so my name was visible. He got to me, and I said, ‘How you doin’, Pach?’ We knew we shouldn’t speak that way to a governor, and there was a high-ranking officer behind him who gave me the dirtiest look. When Governor Hughes saw my name, he said, “Bumann! Are you Ray’s son? I told him I was, and then he asked if my brothers still trapped. That got me off the hook with the officer!”

Bumann’s company was deactivated Dec. 31, 1969, returning to state National Guard status; he learned later that the company he’d left eventually ended up going to Vietnam.

“We replaced a brigade that went to Vietnam,” said Bumann.

After the service, Bumann married Karen (Wunschel) in 1970 while working at Midwest Industries in Ida Grove, and then began farming full-time in 1971. Like his father Ray, he worked with hogs and cattle his entire life and is still an advocate for the pork producers.

“I’d join the National Guard again in a heartbeat,” said Bumann. “You learn discipline, respect, and honor for your country.”