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COLUMN – A Step Back in Time... “When We Come Face to Face with the Human Cost of Freedom”

By Lyle Holmgren - November 11, 2020

The Holmgren family of Tremonton goes back four generations of pioneers and developers in the Bear River Valley that helped bring growth and prosperity to the community.

Lyle Holmgren of Tremonton started posting historical community photos and information on social media and has granted The Valley Headliner – BRVNEWS.com permission to publish his work.


“When We Come Face-to-Face with the Human Cost of Freedom”

In a hallowed part of Tremonton’s Riverview Cemetery lie the remains of the four Borgstrom brothers, LeRoy, Clyde, and twins Rolon and Rulon all who were all killed in action in 1944 as WWII raged on. All within four months of each other. The twins, just 19 years old, were killed within three weeks of each other.

The Western Union man refused to deliver the letter that another Borgstrom was killed – he did not want “to see Mrs. Borgstrom faint in grief again.”

Few families in America have been called on to make such a sacrifice.

According to Colonel Leonard R. Crews, “commanding officer of the Sixth Army escort detachment at Ogden,” the Borgstrom family was the “only four-star Gold Star family on record in World War II.

“What do we owe our fallen and their families on this day? Remembrance, for sure, yet we also owe a keen awareness of what they fought to defend: this great big experiment we call America.” — General James Mattis

Now, 76 years later, we remember their sacrifice and we remember so many others in the Bear River Valley who fought, sacrificed and, like the Borgstrom brothers, gave their lives in defense of this experiment we call America.

Photos courtesy of Lyle Holmgren



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