The Soldier In The Sketch
Historic Photograph of soldiers of the 11th Airborne Division watching an atomic test at Yucca Flat Nevada on 1 November 1951. The test was a 21.5 kiloton bomb, soldiers were less than 7 miles from ground zero. After the detonation, soldiers loaded onto trucks and went to ground zero to view distruction caused by the explosion. Read all about this atomic test in the 12 November 1951 issue of Life Magazine. The story below is about atomic soldier Tom Roth who in the photo above is the soldier kneeling. Troops had to be seated on the desert floor or the blast would have knocked them down.
By GUY CLIFTON, Reno Gazette-Journal --- 07/27/2006
SPARKS, Nev. — A little luck and a lot of tenacity helped a Sparks woman solve a 55-year-old mystery.
Linda Wicksten’s quest started with a portrait of an anonymous soldier, drawn by her late father-in-law years before. She vowed to identify him and present it to the soldier or his family. More than seven years and 17,000 e-mails later, the portrait now has a name to go with the face — Cpl. Tom Roth of Kearney, Neb. — and Wicksten plans to present the original artwork to Roth’s widow, Wilma, in August.
Reno Gazette-Journal photo by Liz Margerum
Linda Wicksten holds the portrait of an American soldier her father-in-law drew. After a seven-year search, she identified the soldier as Tom Roth of Kearney."I found him," Wicksten said. "It took me 7½ years, but I found him."
Like any good mystery, there were many twists and turns Wicksten had to navigate — from World War II India to the atomic test ranges of Nevada to the pages of Life magazine and, of course, a surprise ending.
"It turns out I was looking in the wrong time (period) and the wrong place," she said with a laugh. "And I still found him. I think it was meant to be."
Here’s how it all started:
Wicksten’s late father-in-law, Layton Wicksten, was an artist. During World War II, he was stationed at Bengal Air Depot in India and did artwork for the base newspaper, often drawing portraits of soldiers passing through the base. The portraits became a passion — one he continued for several years after the war ended and he returned home to Palo Alto, Calif.
Eventually, all the portraits were placed in a trunk and, for the most part, forgotten.
Linda Wicksten first saw them in the 1970s. One drawing in particular stood out. It was of a young soldier, a cigarette in his mouth and a look of awe on his face. Her father-in-law lamented that he had no idea of the soldier’s name, but thought he was one of the hundreds of soldiers he had drawn in India during the war.
"When dad died in 1997, I was going through everything, and I came across this soldier’s drawing again," she said. "I said, ‘You know, I’m going to find who you are and I’m going to give you back.’ I know Dad always wanted him to have it."
So Wicksten started contacting military agencies, veterans groups, specialty publications, newspapers and television stations. Since 1998, she said she sent out more than 17,000 e-mails, most of them to no avail.
"There was one guy that told me to give it up and quit wasting my time, because I would never find him," Wicksten said. "Needless to say, I sent him an e-mail saying ‘I told you so.’"
Earlier this year, a small specialty newspaper in Sacramento, "Military," ran a story and the drawing.
Jackpot! Or so Wicksten thought.
One of the paper’s subscribers, 85-year-old Neil Cantwell of Wheatridge, Colo., contacted Wicksten and said, "It looks like my cousin in Nebraska."
He gave her the name of Tom Roth, and after several phone calls, Wicksten was able to locate Roth’s widow, Wilma, in Kearney. At first, it seemed Wicksten had hit another dead end.
"When I got that e-mail, I knew it could not be my husband because he was not in the service between ’42 and ’45, so I just disregarded that e-mail," Wilma Roth said from her home in Kearney. "I went ahead and waited a few days and told her it could not be my husband. Then a few days later, I printed it out, and when I saw the drawing come out of my computer printer, then I knew it was Tom."
Tom Roth was drafted into the Army in 1951 and assigned to Company A of the 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division stationed at Camp Campbell, Ky.
In 1951, his unit was sent to southern Nevada to observe the atomic testing taking place at the Nevada Test Site, and photos of the group were published in Life magazine in November 1951.
Layton Wicksten’s drawing is a dead ringer for one of the soldiers in the photos — Tom Roth.
"What we’ve determined is Mom subscribed to "Life," and Dad would make drawings based on the photos when he liked the guys’ expressions," Linda Wicksten said. "We just figured in time, those drawings meshed together with all the soldiers he had done in India."
Wilma Roth said the "Life" magazine photos were a family story for years.
"It was always quite a story because he has that cigarette in his mouth," she said. "His parents never knew he smoked, so that got him in trouble. Also, and this is before I knew him, he had a couple ladies write to him claiming to be long-lost lovers. There’s all kinds of stories connected to it."
Tom Roth was discharged from the Army in 1953 and lived the rest of his life in Kearney. He died of cancer in 2002.
Linda Wicksten said she’s disappointed she wasn’t able to give him the drawing in person, but she’ll at least be able to give it to his family — and fulfill a promise to her late father-in-law.
"I told Wilma I have a feeling that Tom and Dad met in soldier heaven and they had a good laugh about all this,” Wicksten said. “I think Dad would be really happy."
Life Magazine published the photo of the Atomic Soldiers these issues below
Soldier photo triggers string of events
By Dennis Kellogg
KHAS-TV
8/01/2006
Sometimes a photo you have not seen in quite awhile can bring back a flood of memories. That is the case for a Kearney woman and a photo taken of her husband more than 50 years ago.
Tom and Wilma Roth spent much of their lives in Hastings and Kearney. Now a photo of Tom is once attracting attention many miles from home – for the second time.
Tom Roth was one of a number of soldiers who witnessed the testing of the atomic bomb in the Nevada desert in 1951. When LIFE magazine did a story on the testing, they featured a photo of Tom and other soldiers reacting to the explosion. A photo that was the talk of the town back in Hastings.
"Of course, the fact that he was smoking a cigarette and had not smoked when he left Hastings so, it was always the topic of conversation," said Wilma.
Wilma Roth was married to Tom for 47 years before he passed away in 2002. She says the photo would come up in conversation when Tom would get together with his army buddies.
"He had friends there with him and one of them happens to live in Nebraska so of course they visited about it once in awhile," Wilma said.
Wilma had not thought about this photo in years. Then a phone call this past spring from a woman in Nevada brought the picture back into focus.
"I had this telephone message from Linda Wicksten and she was looking for me," said Wilma.
Linda Wicksten had been looking for Wilma for 7 years. Her father–in–law had drawn a picture of a young soldier with a wide–eyed expression on his face. When her father–in–law passed away and she found the drawing, Linda made a promise to herself.
"She got it in her head that she was going to find this soldier or his family and she did,” said Wilma. “She had over several years just advertised and used email and military magazines and newspapers to anyone who would help her get the picture out to try and find the soldier."
Tom's cousin in Colorado recognized the face in the drawing and contacted Linda. Several phone calls later, Linda reached Wilma.
She told Wilma the drawing was done in the early 40s. Wilma knew it could not be Tom because he served in the army in the early 50s. Linda decided to email her the drawing anyway.
"So then this full–size page picture came out of my computer printer and it was Tom. It was the picture from LIFE magazine," Wilma said.
Wilma recognized the drawing right away.
"Oh yea. No doubt about it. Un–huh."
Mystery solved, but the story is not over.
"It happens to be that she is going to be in Lincoln in August and she is determined to give me that original drawing so I guess I will meet her down there and get it from her," said Wilma.
And so 55 years after the artist put pencil to paper and 7 years after the search for the soldier began, the drawing of Tom is on its way home to his wife.
"What a story," said Wilma. "What a story."
Wilma tells us Linda's father–in–law made drawings of many soldiers through the years, but the one of Tom seemed to be a favorite. He kept it hanging on the wall of his studio for many years.
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