Oren Vall Peterson
Oren Vall Peterson was born July 6th, 1929 in a farmhouse in the Pahvant Valley about 15 miles North of Fillmore Utah. He was the youngest of seven surviving children, four brothers, and two sisters. He survived a third younger sister who died shortly after birth.
He was raised for the first 15 years of his life in the same four room farmhouse in which he was born. He there learned to work the farm with his siblings, plowing the fields with a workhorse, hauling hay via wagon and pitchfork, and milking a small herd of cows by hand which milk was their cash product which was put into milk cans had hauled into town via wagon. The family did have a silage machine for chopping corn, a 160-acre farm with a flowing well, and an irrigation pond which also provided the family with both fish, and entertainment, both winter and summer.
At the age of 14 his family bought a sawmill in Southern Utah where they worked ponderosa pine into rough hewn lumber for sale. At about the age of 15 his family sold both the farm, and saw mill, and thence moved into town (Fillmore) where Vall -as he was known- attended high school. While in high school he learned auto mechanics, metal working, welding and chemistry. The latter two which he loved and later became expert in. While in high school, Vall also worked for his older brother, Lowell, who had opened up a welding shop in Fillmore for the maintenance and construction of farm implements. Following high school, Vall got a job with a well drilling company in Southern Utah, met his future wife while on hiatus with brothers who had all found jobs in North Central Utah, and joined the Utah National Guard, 213th Field Artillery Regiment which was soon activated at the opening of the Korean War.
This unit went onto win a Silver Star Citation having saved the retreating American 8th Army from encirclement at the battle of KapYong, 26 May, 1951. Reason for this was that the retreating American Army never had any armor to cover the rear of their retreat, as is typical. They did however have light armor in the 213th which had mechanized artillery, and half-tracks. Thus it fell to the 213th to take up the rear of the retreat. It was later learned that the tide of battle turned at this point of the war as the attaching Chinese Army -which was nearing the end of what a marching army on foot could project force- was decimated by the 213th. Vall recalls that the retreat was intense; no sleep for days at time, and it went on for weeks. Vall could see the Chinese Army all around in the mountains beside, all moving South faster than what the American Army on the roads in the valley could retreat; all in an effort to cut off the American retreat. -A column can move no faster that the slowest common denominator in the column can move-. At one point, Vall got out of the lead vehicle of his retreating unit and lead the unit’s retreat on foot with nothing more than a 2-candle flashlight as the unit had to travel in darkness, without the use of headlights. This even-though he knew that there were Chinese all around in the darkness. This went on the night long, and when the 213th caught up with the encamped 8th Army days later, all hell broke loose as the 213th was reduced to using their artillery like mortar, shooting almost straight up into the air with the smallest charge possible, over a hill at the enemy which had gotten ahead of the Americans, and was attempting to encircle them.
Following the war Vall came home and married his per-war girlfriend, Sylvia Adeline Shell from Pason Utah. Together they raised 9 children, and at age 92 he is survived by over 100 decedents, including great great grandchildren. Vall -as he liked to be called- made a career of the USS Geneva Works Steel Mill, having started as a welder in 1961, and retired as a super-craft in 1995. He has seven steel and or process patents to his name, and was in process of perfecting more had not the state of Utah taken out of his home.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 11:00 am at the Manila 11th Ward Chape, 850 North 900 East, American Fork, Utah. Family and friends may call from 9:30 to 10:30 am at the church prior to services. Interment will be at the Pleasant Grove City Cemetery.