50 years ago, August 9, 1973Winners Named In Horseshoe Tourney Sunday Three champions were crowned Sunday afternoon in three classes of the Kay County Open Horseshoe Pitching Tournament at Little Park. Winner in Class B was Jim Mihura, first; Vernon Valdois, Wichita, Kan., second and Leo Canaday, Tonkawa, third.Class C – Homer Cain, Marland, first; Melvin Love, Tonkawa, second and Ivan Fehrenbach, Tonkawa, third.Class D – Alva Carruth, Ponca City, first; Henry Wheeler, Ponca City, second; Richard Detten, third.All winners in the double elimination tournament were awarded trophies.Tonkawa Guard Unit Returns From Riot-Torn Prison DutyIt wasn’t a picnic,” were the first words 1st Sgt. Don Pendleton used to describe National Guard duty last week at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester. The Tonkawan was one of 77 members of the local Battery C, 1st Battalion of the 189th Field Artillery who returned Sunday from four days of duty at the riot-torn prison.Guarding the convicts was tense, serious business, Pendleton notes. “We were a little scared of the unknown because we didn’t know what to expect,” he said.The local unit left at 4:00 a.m. Wednesday after spending the night in the armory and breakfasting at Perkins Restaurant. The convoy arrived in McAlester at 10:00 a.m. Initially, the troops were briefed by Col. Vale Jespersen, Battalion Commander, and told to draw ammunition for their M-16 weapons. “He told us to be ready for duty at 1:30 p.m. that afternoon,” Pendleton said.A part of the Tonkawa battery was placed on duty around the chain-link fence which surrounded the demolished industrial complex. “Our mission was to contain the 600 inmates located in the shanty town area,” he recalls. It was a dangerous area in which many prisoners wielded homemade weapons-knives, sharpened pitchforks, and axes. “The prisoners were desperate and would do anything, too,” the sergeant said. The industrial complex was one in which officials had been afraid to move in.Hard-Core Prisoners Other members of the battery were placed in guard positions on rooftops, guard towers, and inside the prison rotunda. “The 600 prisoners in that area were considered the hard-core and were extremely dangerous,” Pendleton said. They were corralled in the southeast corner of the yard.The guardsmen were on duty in twelve hour shifts. However, some of the men went 36 straight hours without relief. Pendleton said the attitude of the Tonkawa men was good. “Everyone there knew we had a mission to do and ...
