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were consumed in the fire.
The WVFD returned to the scene later that evening after a report of flames at the scene was called in.
Firefighters found that some of the old
timber had re-ignited and was smoldering, but it was mostly smoke.
After a neighbor called to complain about smoke drifting toward his property on Tuesday, Feb. 23, Rie-menschneider again
went to the scene. He determined that
the fire was indeed out; there was just residual smoke.
No injuries were re-ported as a result of the fire.•[email protected]•
an eight-foot tall statue standing on a pedestal, as well as granite monuments telling the story of Hughes and his association with Refugio.
In return for receiving permanent use of the area for the plaza, the committee will provide installation and maintenance of the memo-rial at no cost to the district. New RHS signage will also be relocated at committee expense through the educa-tion foundation.
Slack also told the story of Hughes for the RISD board, a life of valor that may have gone unnoticed by Refugio residents.
“Most of you are prob-ably like me, you did not know that Refugio had a Medal of Honor recipient,” he said.
Hughes was born in Al-exandria, Louisiana as the only son of Lloyd Hubert Hughes Sr. and Mildred Mae Rainey Hughes. Al-though he was given his fa-ther’s name, his family and friends called him Pete. His mother remarried into the Jordan family, with Hughes moving to Refugio in 1931.
While in Refugio, Hughes racked up a list of accomplishments befit-ting a hard-working young man. On top of his aca-demic prowess, he was an athletic marvel for RHS, lettering in track, tennis and basketball.
He graduated in 1939, eventually attending Texas A&M University to study petroleum engineering. Scheduled to be a member of the A&M class of 1943, Hughes felt a higher calling after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Decem-ber 1941. Several weeks later, on Jan. 28, 1942, the 20-year-old enlisted in military service and was ap-pointed an aviation cadet.
Commissioned as a sec-ond lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, Hughes began taking flight training and was ultimately assigned a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber aircraft. Taking part in five combat mis-sions during his service, he was assigned to the 389th
Bombardment Group, dis-patched to a secret base in Libya for what Slack called a “secret mission.”
This mission turned out to be Operation Tidal Wave, known as the most highly decorated military mission in United States history. His fifth, and final, mission would be an 18-hour, 2,400-mile round trip to destroy Nazi oil refiner-ies at Ploiesti, Romania, 30 miles north of Bucharest. On Aug. 1, 1943, Hughes and 178 other B-24 Lib-erators took off on the mis-sion. His crew, the 389th, was the least experienced of the pilots heading toward Ploiesti.
“In other words, the least experienced guys were fly-ing at the back after the en-emy had already been alert-ed ... the mission was not without some problems,” Slack said.
Targeting the Campina oil fields north of Ploiesti’s oil fields, Hughes would be entering what was known as “the mouth of hell,” as the Nazi defenses had already been alerted of the Air Forces attack. Not going down without a fight, the young pilot fared through “chimney top height” altitudes to reach his destination.
“(The B-24 is) simply not supposed to fly that low,” Slack said. “The (coordi-nators) of the mission real-ized they ere asking a lot of the pilots to fly at this level. Pete was one of the pilots selected to fly because of his skillset.”
During the dangerous flight, Hughes’ aircraft was damaged from anti-aircraft guns, causing gasoline to leak from tanks in the bomb bay and left wing of the B-24. Flames were reach-ing high above the bomb-ing level as well, adding greater consequence to the leaking gasoline. Instead of attempting a forced landing before reaching the target area, Hughes responded to radio communications that he was “on target” and “go-ing in.”
Carrying out his mission, Hughes flew into the wall
of fire approximately 30 feet above ground, drop-ping his bomb load with precision. Not all was well, though, as the left wing of the B-24 caught fire amid the bombing. Before crash landing in the dry river bed of the Prahova River, the left wing of the aircraft came off, resulting in what Slack called a “catastrophic crash.” Hughes was 22 years of age at his passing.
Hughes was one of five Air Force airmen awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery after the incident, and also earned the Purple Heart for his actions. His widow, Hazel, received his Medal of Honor in 1944, with Hughes becoming the first Refugio and Texas A&M alum to earn the highest honor given for service to the United States military.
He has been honored in numerous places since his passing, including a place as distinguished alum of A&M. Hughes Hall, a stu-dent dormitory, is named after the Refugio alum.
Slack believes that now is the time to honor the hero at his high school.
“It is something that the students can look to, teachers can point to, as an example for what one lonesome Bobcat letterman accomplished,” he said. “But, it is also symbolic to what all of your graduates can accomplish, and have accomplished, in their en-deavors.”
The Hughes’ committee has worked tirelessly on not just the potential RHS memorial, but on further-ing Hughes’ legacy state-wide. The team helped in-troduce a bill for this year’s 87th Texas Legislature that would rename US-77 from the Victoria County line to the San Patricio County line as the “Pete Hughes Memorial Highway.” The road, said Slack, will act as a “driveway” to the memo-rial site.
“We believe that this me-morial is going to become more than just a memorial plaza at the corner of Vance and US-77,” he said.
Page 8A • Thursday, March 4, 2021 • MySouTex.com
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“contemporary and cool, but not brash” design.
A deli display case will also be implemented for on-the-go and im-pulse buy items. Residents will be able to dine in at the restaurant at re-launch, with the company being “very conscious” of social distanc-ing and other safety protocols.
“When that restaurant opens, it’s going to be a state of the art,” Terry said.
A similar location re-launch was held in 2020 with Golden Chick’s Beeville location, which Terry says has been a “wildly successful” en-deavor. He reported that the restau-rant has seen a 50 percent increase in service than before the re-launch, even with the COVID-19 pandemic taking a bite out of the industry.
The continued customer support is one more step in the right direc-tion for the company as the Refugio location re-opens.
“Our drive-thrus, curbside, deliv-ery options are kind of fit to the new norm of how people are eating,” Terry said. “We haven’t had a drop-off at all. What we’ve had is a lot of people have stopped going to the traditional sit-down restaurants, the Chili’s of the world ... and they’re kind of flocking to quick service drive-thrus, curbsides, which are more contactless and more conve-nient for their needs.”
Another business strength comes from the variety of menu items, in-cluding eight side dishes to choose from. For Refugio families with picky eaters, the plethora of options
eases the most complex of palates.“Our menu tees up very nicely to
post-pandemic reality out there of how people are eating,” Terry said.
The VP stated that local patrons that grew up with Golden Chick will be rewarded for their loyalty with the updated Refugio restau-rant, with the company looking to come back “better than ever.”
“(Our relationship with Refugio has) always been very strong,” Terry said. “It’s kind of got a history with us, it’s near and dear. The Refugio community is one we’ve been in for many, many years, almost 40 I be-lieve. It was a shame to close it, but that building needed to be rebuilt, and so the decision was not to leave the community, it was to relaunch in that market.”
GOLDEN, from P. 1A
HUGHES, from P. 1A
by thomas lefflerEditor
A group of Refugio Independent School District alums have gone
all-in on education.The Refugio ISD Education Foun-
dation is currently taking sponsorship registration for the “World Series of Refugio Texas Hold’em Tournament,” which will be held June 12 at the Refu-gio Expo Center. The foundation be-gan as a “steering wheel committee” of RISD alumni in 2019, becoming a 501c3 organization in August 2019.
“We all decided that we thought it would be a good thing for us to start this foundation, because we all wanted to give back to Refugio,” RISD Edu-cation Foundation Vice President of Marketing and Events Kelley Walker said. “We realized how much our high school had done for us, helped shape us as students and who we are as adults now.”
The goal of the foundation is to provide grants to improve academics throughout RISD, particularly aiding teachers. All proceeds from the founda-tion’s fundraising efforts go back into the district, including $30,000 worth of grants thus far.
Grant money goes toward teachers who fill out an application for gifts, par-ticularly innovations for the classroom.
“We kind of look at it like a teacher wish list for Christmas,” Walker said. “If the teacher could have anything in their classroom, what would they want?”
The first round of grant funding has gone towards projects such as Google Chromebooks for Refugio Elementary School students, as well as advance-ments in the Refugio High School phys-ics classroom.
“(We’re) making it as easy (for teach-ers) as we can ... if we can help them out, if we can give them a little bit extra to make their job that much easier, it’s such a good feeling for all of us, we all really love it,” Walker said.
Making the job easier for faculty can also be as simple as showing apprecia-tion, which the foundation has done several times in the 2020-21 academic year. At the beginning of the school
year, the foundation provided staff with a catered meal, followed by bundt cakes around Thanksgiving time.
The latest show of respect for staff took place around Valentine’s Day, with cookies and drinks provided.
“We knock on their door, say ‘Hey, we just want to let you know we appre-ciate you, come grab a cookie’ ... they really appreciate that,” Walker said.
The foundation currently consists of 14 board members, who meet monthly to come up with fundraising ideas. The first success was the Bobcat tribute plaza sale, selling bricks from Refugio High School for residents to buy for any occasion.
Next on the agenda is the Texas hold’em tournament, with proceeds going toward continued educational ef-forts. The stakes are still as real as any other tournament, with $12,000 in Visa gift cards going to the top 10 players, in-cluding $4,000 to first-place (based on the goal of 140 entries).
Early sign-ups will receive $2,000 in chips for the event, and will help spon-sor the future of Refugio and beyond. Donations are accepted by check or through PayPal by calling either 361-550-6447 or 361-646-3531.
“This doesn’t just support my kid-dos,” Walker said. “This supports every kid in our district. It helps our commu-nity out, the ramifications, big-picture is huge. Everyone needs to realize how important education (is) and how im-portant it is to give these kids an oppor-tunity to see different things, different places ... the main thing is opportunity for these kiddos, a chance to look out-side of Refugio for something bigger out there.”
Through their early endeavors, the foundation team has remained strong in their focus of getting the best out of RISD classrooms.
“It’s been amazing,” Walker said. “I think it’s just united all of us ... it’s just so neat to hear everyone’s story about what Refugio meant to them. It’s so strange, the only thing that hasn’t changed is that we bleed Orange and Black ... that tradition never fades, it’s universal.”
RISD foundation goes all-in
FIRE, from P. 1A
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