Two brothers who grew up in Somers and served in the military during World War II will have a flag flown in their honor throughout the next year at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery.

Rudy and Raymond Bergstrom have been selected for this year’s Memorial Day flag ceremony. Each year on Memorial Day, the United Veterans of Flathead County raise a new flag at the Veterans Memorial Monument at the Conrad Cemetery.

The ceremony begins at 1 p.m. today.

Last year the flag was dedicated to Larry Valtinson; that flag will be retired and returned to his family during the ceremony.

The Bergstrom brothers were two years apart. Rudy, born in 1923, died in December 2013 at age 90. Raymond, born in 1925, passed away just a few months later in February this year at age 88.

In recent years they had both returned to the Flathead Valley. Rudy and his wife, Ruth, came back to Kalispell in 2012 and moved into the newly built Sykes’ Apartments. Ray lived at the BeeHive Assisted Living facility in Columbia Falls for two years before his death.

“We were grateful they had this last while together,” said Linda Olson, Ray’s daughter.

They spent hours reminiscing together about their carefree boyhood days in Somers, swimming in Flathead Lake and whiling away summer days along the shore. Oftentimes, though, the conversation would drift back to their time in the military.

Rudy was a member of the first class of cadets in the Civilian Pilot Training program based at  Kalispell City Airport. 

In the months following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government contracted with fixed-base operators to provide ground-school and flight training as a preliminary selection process of military flight training.

That early training jump-started his career in the U.S. Air Force as a flight instructor. During the war and afterwards he flew 20 different types of planes, including B-17s and B-25s.

Rudy was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Albany, Ga., before he was sent to a U.S. air base on Luzon Island in the Philippines, where his job was to fly in and rescue men in the water or on ships.

He often recalled in detail how difficult it was to complete some of the rescues when he had to maneuver the aircraft to hit the tops of the waves.

Following his time in the Air Force, Rudy became a first lieutenant in the National Guard to continue his love of flying. He served five years with the Guard in the 1950s.

Just three months before he died, Rudy was able to travel with assistance on the Big Sky Honor Flight to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Ray was just 17 when he fibbed about his age to enlist in the U.S. Navy in 1943. He served aboard a destroyer, the USS Haggard.

During a 2008 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Ray recalled a particular episode aboard the ship on April 29, 1945. That was the day a Japanese suicide pilot flew his aircraft into the destroyer.

The destroyer was taking up battle formation northeast of Okinawa when two kamikazes broke through the defense of four Navy fighter planes. Then 30 seconds later, a second Kamikaze began its deadly dive toward the destroyer.

The collision killed 13 men onboard and filled the engine room with water, but Ray, the youngest man on ship, lived to tell about it. Many years later he recalled the horrific scene. When he went to close the ship hatch, he saw the pilot’s body in the water, an image that stayed with him throughout his life, his daughter Linda said.

During “general quarters,” or calls to battle, Ray took his position inside the No. 2 gun mount.

“I was the hot shell man,” he told the Inter Lake. “My job was the catch the brass when it came out of the barrel. Then I’d toss it through a hole in the back of the gun mount.”

He and his crew saw enough heavy action to earn 12 battle stars for their destroyer, making some naval history along the way.

Ray also was able to travel to Washington, D.C., on the Honor Flight to see the World War II Memorial.

BOTH BROTHERS led long, full lives following their time in World War II.

Rudy married Ruth in 1944 and they raised five children. They settled in the Flathead Valley after the war and he worked at Buttrey’s and then Kelly-Main Street Furniture for 18 years. The family moved to Phoenix in 1965, where they lived for the next 47 years. He continued working in the furniture business until his retirement. They were married for nearly 70 years when he died; Ruth lives in Kalispell.

Ray married Joyce in 1946 and they raised three children. He was a locomotive engineer for the Great Northern Railway for 35 years and they traveled extensively after their retirement. Ray and Joyce were married for 62 years; she preceded him in death.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.