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PRESEASON: SAINTS’ RATTLER LEADS LATE RALLY TO TIE JAGUARS 1C THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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M o n d ay, au g u s t 18, 2025
Celebrating
a long and fulfilled life
$2.00X
New data sheds light on La. menhaden fishing Controversial pogy boats long scrutinized by recreational anglers
BY MIKE SMITH | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE
World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor James Bollich celebrates his 104th birthday at his home in Lafayette on Friday.
One of the last living WWII death march survivors, Lafayette man honored on 104th birthday
Two boats slide off the back of their mothership and into the Gulf’s green waters. Then the real work begins. With waves rocking them, the boats begin to separate, unspooling a net bigger than five football fields as they motor in opposite directions to form a circle. Hundreds of pelicans hover, hoping for a free meal. When the net is set, yellow floats along its perimeter bobbing on the surface, the men on the boats close it off and haul it back, bringing small, silvery fish with it. “You’ve got a little fish in the net,” said Shane Treadaway, who oversees the operations, as he watches from a separate boat nearby, speaking of what was primarily intended as a demonstration for visiting journalists rather than an actual attempt to catch menhaden. Later, the menhaden, or pogies, will be pumped onto a mothership about 170 feet long, for the trip back to the dock. There, they’ll be shuttled through pipes into a plant that runs them through
ä See MENHADEN, page 5A
BY JOEL THOMPSON | Contributing writer Clouds threatened rain Friday afternoon, but it didn’t stop friends, family and Purple Heart veterans from honoring the 104th birthday of World War II veteran Jim Bollich of Lafayette. With American flags adorning both sides of his walker, Bollich showed an attentiveness and alertness to his surrounding that defied his advanced age. He cracked jokes alongside Louisiana Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier, who presented Bollich with an official expression of commendation, and stood up to salute the active-duty Marines and Purple Heart veterans who drove by his house as part of a car parade organized by the Acadiana chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. The atmosphere was a stark contrast to the one he faced 83 years earlier. Bollich spent his 21st birthday inside a Japanese prison camp in Mukden, Manchuria. It’s also where he would spend his 22nd birthday.
Radio host faces scrutiny over state job
Military veterans salute World War II veteran James Bollich as he celebrates his 104th birthday on Friday at his home in Lafayette. And his 23rd. It would be on the same day as his 24th birthday, Aug. 15, 1945, that Russian forces liberated the camp where he was held. While in captivity, Bollich participated in the Bataan Death March, in which more than 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers were forcibly transferred with limited rations.
The march is infamous for having killed many of the soldiers forced to embark on it. Bollich credits his survival to hunting skills he learned growing up in the small Louisiana town of Mowata. When he returned to rural Acadia
ä See CELEBRATING, page 4A
“Keeping active, both physically and mentally, are the keys to living a long and fulfilling life.” JIM BOLLICH, 104-year-old World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor
Jeff Crouere works behind the scenes for Cassidy opponent BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer Jeff Crouere delights in bashing former President Joe Biden and “woke” Democrats during his daily talk radio show on WGSO-990 AM in New Orleans. But the conservative commentator aims many of his sharpest words at a fellow Republican: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is running for a third term. “That guy is the biggest fraud in the Senate,” Crouere said on the air Wednesday. “He’s got to be defeated.” Crouere Called “Ringside Politics,” Crouere’s show airs on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. In between,
ä See CROUERE, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 94 LOW 75 PAGE 10C
Classified .....................4B Living............................5C Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Lottery..........................4B Opinion ........................2B Commentary ................3B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 49