Curt Ando

Grant Ujifusa

Two letters to the editor ran soon after Curt Ando died in Vietnam. Ando, a Powell grad, was the town’s first casualty. Both praised Ando’s character. This letter from Owen and Ella McFarland highlighted Ando’s sense of duty and loyalty and expressed condolences to his family.

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The Powell High School Class of 2024 graduated and walked into their futures on May 19, just as student leader and Powell High athlete Curt Ando had done in 1963.

Less than four years later, in January 1967, Pfc. Ando was Powell’s first casualty of the Vietnam War. Now, five and a half decades later, Ando has returned to Powell High School, in spirit, through the Curt Ando Scholarship.

The scholarship was formed by Grant Ujifusa, a Worland alum with a history of fighting for recognition and compensation for Japanese Americans.

Ujifusa led the Japanese American Citizen League in its mission to see the Japanese American redress bill signed into law. The bill, which included monetary reparations and an apology to Japanese Americans who were uprooted from their homes and incarcerated during World War II, was signed on Aug. 10, 1988, by former President Ronald Reagan.

But the motivation for the scholarship is not political. Ujifusa knew Ando from one memorable childhood encounter. The scholarship is for Ando, and for Ujifusa’s memories of him as a 5-year-old, he said.

After leaving high school, Ando attended college for two years before enlisting in the Marine Corps  amid the Vietnam War. Ando was in Vietnam for roughly six weeks before he joined 11 other Wyoming casualties.

“The official Marine announcement of Pfc. Ando’s death, released to the press, said only that he died of a gunshot wound while on patrol near DaNang on Jan. 3,” a Jan. 6, 1967 Tribune story said, adding, “But the word which reached Ando’s parents told how he was accidentally shot by a sentry as the Powell Marine returned from a night patrol.”

His death deeply affected Ando’s mother, said Ujifusa, who only knew her slightly. 

“He was sent to Vietnam, as a [private first class] and these guys would set up base camps up and down South Vietnam, often in VC or North Vietnamese territory,” Ujifusa said. “So every night and every morning they would do a patrol around the base camp, and on one occasion Curt got separated from his group, and one of his buddies mistook him for a VC or North Vietnamese soldier and shot him to death, so he came back in a box.”

Ujifusa’s main experience with Ando happened within one day, but it was a memorable one. 

In the early 1950s a Japanese American community existed whose footprint extended from Lander to Harman, Montana, Ujifusa recalled. While the original Japanese American immigrants were still alive, there would be Fourth of July picnics along the Big Horn River. At one of these picnics Ando came to Ujifusa’s aid. 

Ujifusa was about 8 years old then — he had been hard at work using a plastic cup to create a sand pile. 

“It was shaped like a volcano, you'd pour sand at the top, and it would come down the sides and gradually you would have something that resembled a small volcano made of sand,” he remembered.

The carefully built volcanic structure was not long for this world. Eventually it was leveled by a group of teenagers.

“So, what  happened was this 5-year-old named Curt Ando came over to me and with his own plastic cup helped me rebuild my pile. And, I’d always remembered that,” Ujifusa said.

When Ando died, the news ran on the front page in the paper, near a death notice assuring the community plans for a memorial service were underway.

The new scholarship in Ando’s honor was awarded to recent PHS grad Emma Johnson, who will be attending Ripon College in Wisconsin.

“This is to be awarded to someone who, for lack of a better word, is kind and generous. Not necessarily the top student, but who might be like Curt in the way [they] approach life,” Ujifusa said.

Two letters to the editor and Ujifusa’s story agree Ando was a man of character. 

“How lucky we are to have had Curt Ando, and I'm sure a nation with many others like him. Curt is gone, but, he died with the strength that comes only from knowing the meaning of the words, honor, duty, and integrity,”  wrote Jacques Maggard, a former Powell teacher, in one of those letters. “He died with the strength that comes only from knowing the meaning of the words, honor, duty and integrity.”

This letter initially ran in the Jan. 6, 1967 issue of the Tribune:

Dear Editor:

Viet Nam has now claimed a victim from our small community. Word of his death has made me pause in my daily activities and give many thoughts to him and his family. News like this often gives a new perspective to many things. Personal affairs that have seemed so big or so important suddenly seem quite small or petty.

In this nation a young man stepped forward while many of the ranks were protesting "this or that.” One burned his draft card, while another noisily aired his prejudices.

The next rioted, while yet another pondered away his time wondering how he could "get something for nothing.”

Very quietly this man left us and thousands of miles from home faced the end.

I knew Curt Ando well as a student in junior high. He was outstanding, excelling in all phases of school life. I remember him best for his quiet, courteous, friendly ways.

What a tragedy that such a fine young man must give his life in a war that I'm sure, at times, frustrates us all. But, how lucky we are to have had Curt Ando, and I'm sure a nation with many others like him. Curt is gone, but, he died with the strength that comes only from knowing the meaning of the words, honor, duty, and integrity.

In tribute to Curt Ando

Jacques Maggard