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11-8-16 sect. 1.qxp:Layout 1 11/3/16 1:04 PM Page 1 Hungarian refugee finds home on Kansas farm – fights Communism in U.S. army By Donna Sullivan, Editor When Nick Edvy fed the cattle and pigs before school each day in the late 1950s, he wasn’t your typical teenager pulling his weight on the family farm. When he attended class each day at Luckey High School, he had much more on his mind and more life experience under his belt than his peers could begin to imagine. While they may have chafed under their parents’ rules, he remem- bered a mother in a distant country and a father whose fate he didn’t know. Edvy’s story is one of a young boy who found the courage to battle Commu- nism not once, but twice in his life – first as a Hungarian teenager in the country’s Driving a tractor was a novelty for Nick, because in Hungary, cattle were used for revolution, then as an Amer- farming jobs. ican citizen fighting in the ing, then began making his pers that came through first. silos and they were loading Vietnam war. way toward the river and the About a week later, three the cattle feed into them.” Now he is retired from a border just beyond. It was days before Christmas he Fred Killian was a farmer career with the Riley County Having fled Hungary, 14-year-old Nick Edvy was adopt- mid-November, they’d had a flew from Germany to Cana- who also had a college de- Police Department, enjoying ed by a farming family in Wamego, where he pitched in recent rain and the river was da to New York. Because ju- gree and was an organizer of life with Peggy, his wife of with chores before school each day. Courtesy photos wide and cold. “I swam and veniles cannot be left on the National Farmers Organ- 51 years, traveling the coun- military school was activat- prison, because I fought for got to the other side,” he re- their own in the United ization (NFO) and Margaret try on their motorcycles or in ed to fight against the revo- the revolution and they members. “I didn’t know if I States, there was a question was a music teacher. They their motor home. He suffers lutionaries. would probably execute was still in Hungary or if I of what would happen to had a son two years older from the effects of the Agent While the money was an me.” Executing teenagers was in Austria.” He soon Edvy and other young than Edvy, and two sons and Orange used in Viet Nam, alluring factor of the Com- was not uncommon. saw the headlights of a jeep refugees. The answer came a daughter that were younger but looks back on his time in munist party in the begin- “”I ended up breaking the coming toward him. “I said, in the form of a Catholic than him. “So we became a the service as a young man ning, the Revolution window, took the glass and ‘I don’t care who it is, just couple from Wamego who family,” he said. Not that the doing what needed to be changed everything. “When cut the throat of the guard, help me, pick me up,’” It adopted Edvy and Steve, a process was without its chal- done for his country. it came that I had to fight and I went on out through a was the Austrian border pa- boy two years older. “So we lenges. The language barrier But before that, he was against my own people, I side door.” trol who realized he was a became brothers,” Edvy was a huge obstacle, which just a boy. said ‘No way,’” Edvy re- He made his way to the Hungarian refugee and took said. A three-day train ride was overcome with the help Having just graduated counts. He and several oth- highway, looking for a ride him to a hospital where he took them to Kansas City of a K-State professor who from high school at 13 years ers stole guns and ammuni- back to his hometown. A stayed for three days before where they were met by a had been an FBI agent and old, common in Hungary, tion and deserted the mili- driver took him as far as the being moved to a house Hungarian priest who intro- spoke ten different lan- Edvy was now considered an tary school, traveling to Bu- Russian Air Force base, where many other Hungari- duced them to their adoptive guages and his wife, who adult. At the urging of an dapest to join the Revolu- which was right next to the an families were staying. He parents, Fred and Margaret was a second-generation uncle who was an officer in tion. Because he’d had town, and dropped him off. soon traveled with them to Kilian. Hungarian born in Ohio. the Communist Hungarian friends that spoke Russian He spoke to the guard and Germany, where he filled out He describes his first They also helped the broth- armed forces, he entered the and the language was spoken talked him into finding a ride papers to go to France, since glimpse of the farm that ers obtain American citizen- military school to study coal at his high school, Edvy and that took him across the Air he knew he couldn’t go back would become his new ship in 1963. mining engineering. Al- the other teenagers with him Force base and dropped him to Hungary. France refused home. “It was a big two- Since they were of high though he was a baptized were able to mill around the off. He walked about three him because he didn’t have story house and it had two school age, it seemed fitting Catholic, Edvy was told he Russian soldiers and glean miles into town, and went to any family to sponsor him. big tubes coming out of the to the Kilians that the boys would receive more money valuable information to take his mother’s house. She had He filled out papers for both ground,” he says. “All of a enroll at the nearby Catholic if he went to the Communist back to the Hungarian fight- no idea he had even left the Canada and the United sudden, kids were coming school. “There were nuns school, so he agreed. He ers. They slept in basements military school, but now rec- States and it was the U.S. pa- out of the tubes. They were Continued on page 3 began classes in June, 1956. of churches and schools or ognized her son was in grave Then on October 23 of that wherever else they could danger. He spent the night at same year, the revolution find. a friend’s house in case the was started by the factory About a month later they military came looking for workers in Budapest. The were riding in a jeep in Bu- him, and the next day, with dapest when a Russian sol- money his mother had given dier shot and killed the driv- him for groceries, he joined er, causing the jeep to hit a a group of about five other wall. Edvy and the others young men who were fleeing bailed out, but were soon the country. captured. Because of his mil- They boarded a train for itary ID card, they quickly Austria, but the closer they learned that he had escaped got, the more scrutiny Edvy the military school and took seemed to be attracting. He him back to face court mar- told his friends he needed to tial for stealing guns and am- get off the train before they munition and for fighting figured out who he was and with the Revolution. what he’d done. So they all Back at the school they got off the train at the next locked him alone in a class- town and began walking to- room to await the court mar- ward the border. tial. “There were two guards It was getting late in the marching back and forth in evening, and it was dark front of the school,” Edvy when they reached the river. remembers. “Every time “All of a sudden the lights they would pass each other, came on and there was gun- they would stop and talk. I fire,” Nick says. The boys could see what was going on scattered in different direc- and I thought, ‘I have to get tions to hide. Edvy went out of here because if I don’t back into the forest and hisd they’re going to put me into until about 4:30 in the morn- Nick displays medals, photos and badges from his time in the United States Army, serving a tour in Vietnam. Photo by Donna Sullivan 11-8-16 sect. 1.qxp:Layout 1 11/3/16 12:56 PM Page 2 Page 2 Grass & Grain, November 8, 2016 lieve their soil not only producer has clumps, piles lows their native range needs to be conserved, but and bunches of the residue much needed rest and re- Guest rejuvenated with best man- from a crop, the next imple- covery, allowing more grass agement practices such as ment that goes through the to be grown on their range Editorial rotational grazing, cover field will plug up. acres. By Chip Bowling, crops and no-till. Cover crops have also The family continues to National Corn Growers The Thompsons have helped the family reduce add windbreaks, and have Association chairman, U.S.

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