Royce Pollard’s home is packed with mementoes from lengthy stints as a U.S. Army officer and the mayor of Vancouver.
Pollard donated some of his keepsakes to a fundraising auction that was part of a recent “roast and toast.” The items — including military biographies, books on Northwest history, framed artwork and a bottle of vodka from the Russian city of Chkalovsk — raised about $3,000 for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
But the former mayor still isn’t sure what he’ll do with his old election signs — except for one. He’s going to frame the sign that represents the retired colonel’s Afghan campaign.
Col. Dan Kern, a Clark County soldier, planted the sign on a mountain peak near Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul. When Kern went back up the mountain a couple of months later, the “Royce Pollard for Mayor” sign was still there — and none the worse for wear.
“Somebody continued to take care of Royce’s sign,” Kern said. “Somebody went out of their way to make sure it was clean and straight.
“We didn’t even put it up that straight,” he recalled.
Which is interesting because the trek up Gharib Ghar isn’t exactly like a stroll to the top of Beacon Rock.
“You always had your guns with you,” Kern said. “It’s secured, and it’s a training area, but you never can tell.”
Kern said one of his Afghan counterparts told him, “Whoever saw the sign thought, ‘This is an important man.’ “
This all happened during Kern’s own Afghan campaign. Kern, chief of staff of the Washington Army National Guard, spent about eight months there as senior mentor with the nation’s service college program. He helped train Afghan army officers ranging from senior captains to two-star generals.
Kern is a Camas resident, and couldn’t cast a ballot in the Vancouver mayoral race. But he’s an admirer of Pollard and decided to have some fun with the election.
“When he was assigned to Afghanistan, we’d communicate by e-mail about three times a week,” Pollard said. “He wanted his wife to have a couple of signs. I said, ‘You’re in Camas.’ He said, ‘I don’t care.’ “
So there was a Pollard campaign sign in front of Kern’s Camas home, and the soldier asked his wife to ship another sign to him in Afghanistan.
“It started out in my office,” Kern said. “My executive officer said, ‘We’re climbing Gharib Ghar, and we should put the mayor on the mountain.’ “
Kern planted it on the 8,000-foot peak on Feb. 22 and retrieved it on May 5 before returning home. Kern and an Afghan brigadier general autographed the sign, then Kern presented it to Pollard in November at Vancouver’s Veterans Parade.
Pollard and the Camas colonel also collaborated on keepsakes for a few of the Afghan army leaders Kern was working with. Pollard sent a half-dozen commemorative coins, which had been minted to celebrate Vancouver’s 150th anniversary.
“What I got was an empty package,” Kern said.
“It was a small package, and it felt heavy,” Pollard said. Somebody along the way must have figured it contained something valuable and helped themselves.
Pollard tried it again. He hid the coins in a box of Girl Scout cookies, which he shipped in another container filled with popcorn. It arrived safely.
Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558 or tom.vogt@columbian.com.
