Carson Valley soldier heading for Baghdad

Kira Schreckengost, a member of the seventh generation to serve her country in the U.S. Army, is leaving for Iraq in the next few weeks.

The 2005 Douglas High School graduate was visiting her family at their Gardnerville Ranchos home this week. She returns to her unit on Saturday.

She said she signed up for the Army two years ago.

"I spent nearly a year on the delayed entry program," the 19-year-old said. "I'd been thinking about it for a long time while I was in school."

Kira left for the Army two weeks after graduation and went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. After basic, she specialized as an intelligence analyst and is now stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, where her boyfriend lives.

While it is too early to say whether she will want to re-up for another hitch, so far she's enjoying her time in the service and is looking forward to going overseas.

"I'm actually pretty excited about it," she said. "I'm ready to go out there and see the world and do my job."

Kira is the daughter of Ron and Shannon Schreckengost who moved to the Valley about nine years ago from Pennsylvania. Ron works at Warm Springs Prison in Carson City.

She is the oldest of five children, with a sister Brittany, 16, brother Emery, 14, sister Madaline, 11, and brother Alex, 4.

Kira's aunt Toni Braga works for the East Fork Fire District and is proud of her niece. It was Toni who called to say Kira is in town.

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Gardnerville resident Earl Hohlmayer will get a chance to do something few people have done. On Labor Day he will have the opportunity to drive a car he hasn't owned in more than half a century.

The car is a 1937 Cord supercharged convertible coupe, Hohlmayer purchased it in 1948.

The 85-year-old owned it for a few years before he went to serve in the Korean War.

Earl's brother Ed was driving the car while Earl was in the service, and burned up the transmission because he didn't know how to work the electric shift mechanism.

Earl's brother traded the car for a 1937 Cord supercharged Westchester sedan and when Earl returned, his beloved car was gone, sold to a man named Henry Portz.

"The car was gorgeous," Earl said of the convertible. "I never knew exactly how Mr. Portz managed to get my convertible, since it was worth about three times what the sedan was. When I got home, my brother told me he had something to show me in the garage. I asked where my convertible was and he said you never had a convertible."

According to museum Marketing Director Gran Roberts, Earl will get to drive the car over Labor Day weekend at the Indiana museum and perhaps ask Mr. Portz himself.

Earl has lived in the Valley since 2002, though his daughter and her husband Dixie and Sandy Martin of Gardnerville, have been here since the 1970s. Earl was a high point driver for Sports Cars of America where he was an executive.

He owns Commodore Insignia and supplies uniforms, insignia pins and accessories to yacht clubs around the country.

A history author, he has written four books and is wrapping up a fifth right now entitled "Steamboats and Other Vessels on Western Waters."

"Steamboats and other vessels on Western Waters" is now getting ready for press.

n Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 215.