Photo by Catherine Stachowiak
US military veterans from various branches were honored at the Veterans Honor Lunch,
Paradise Cove Lodge hosted for Kern Valley Exchange Club, Thursday November 14.
Man of the Year and founder of the Honor Flight Breakfasts, in Kern Valley, Gary Zuber said, “In honor of Veterans Day I was asked to bring a few of our veterans from the Honor Flight.”
The first veteran to speak during the luncheon was World War II Veteran Ferny Hernandez,
Hernandez is the only World War II veterans left in the Kern River Valley. He said, “I joined the Navy at 17 in 1943. I was put aboard a troop transport, which transported more soldiers and marines, in the South Pacific, from one island to another.”
After the war was over his team went into Tokyo Bay. They were the first American soldiers to occupy Japan as an invasion force.
In 1960 he bought property in Lake Isabella and built his own place there. He is 98 years old. He said, “I’ve been living in the valley now for 48 years.” Hernandez who attended with lunch with his lovely wife said that these days he could be found at the local bowling alley with friends.
The next speaker was Korean War Veteran Don Erwin. He said, “I joined the Marine Corps when I was 17 years old. I was wanting to get away from the farm and all those darn cows. I was next to the last week in boot camp when the Korean War started. So I guess it was about July, I was aboard ship, in Southern California, and headed toward
Japan. I was aboard a troop ship. When we got to Japan we found out that you had to be 18 to be in a combat zone.
“So there were about 300 of us 17 year olds in the Hersh Marine Division. So they took us out of the division and put us on guard duty,” he said. Erwin was there for about nine months. And got back to Korea in April of 1951.
Those in the Hersh Division had to be home for Christmas so Erwin was sent home to the states for Christmas.
About 1953 Erwin was one of around 4,000 Marines who witnessed one of the atomic bomb explosions over Las Vegas. He said, “Now a days you couldn’t get within miles of the explosion. But we walked right through ground zero, kicking up the dust and so forth.”
Erwin re-enlisted for state department duty and spent 12 months at his first post
before going to Budapest, behind the iron curtain, where he was stationed for 15 months.
Erwin returned just in time to be discharged. He married one of the State Department daughters. He bought a lot in Squirrel Valley and has been up here, post retirement, for
28 years enjoying the mountains. Erwin is 91 years old.
Jim Wyly an exchangeite went to Kern Valley High School and went to a year of college before he was drafted. He told the group that his brother was drafted two weeks before he was. His brother got called to Vietnam. Wyly said he felt a bit left out because he was put on hold..
“I got orders to go to Fort Knox Kentucky. I became a APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) and a 114 Hauler that hauled marines,” he said. Wyly was licensed to drive a tank. And he was sent to Korea. He was assigned to the 38th Parallel and got shot at the third day he was there.
Wyly became a sergeant. He took 10 or 12 fellow soldiers with him into demilitarized zone for an over night deal about four different times. He said, “One night we got orders to load up and we started driving and we’re on a track. It doesn’t have wheels on it. It has tracks. We traveled for six hours in the dark. You don’t know where you’re going or what you’re going to do until you get there. That’s how the military works. So when we got there they started placing us on this hillside. We didn’t know where we were. And the sun came up. We were overlooking the Freedom Bridge.”
Wyly explained that in 1967 a navy vessel was captured by North Korea and 83 naval commissioned people were on there on a reconnaissance mission. It was actually a spy vessel but it was captured. One person was killed from that vessel. The others were held prisoners for nine months. Wyly said he witnessed the release of those prisoners from POW, and the casket being released, along with the other POWs. “I came home safely too,” Wyly said.
Vietnam veteran Bill Larson told his story next. He said, “I’ve lived here in the valley all my life, pretty much, and went to Kern Valley High School. I was drafted in the Army, in December 22, 1965. I went to Fort Bliss, Texas. When we came out of the examination room where, everybody stripped down, we walked around all day long with no clothes on. They wanted you to pee in a cup. So they said if you couldn’t pee in the cup, give it to the guy next to you, and he could pee in it for you. That’s how bad they wanted you. There were people in there that had cataracts bad and they were coming out of there with 20/20 vision. So that kind of tells you that a warm body was all they wanted.”
Larson went to Fort Bliss, Texas for basic training. He went to Fort Ord, California, for Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Then Larson was sent to Vietnam in July 1966. He came home in July of 1967. Larson earned the Silver Star metal, which President Lindon B Johnson personally awarded him, in Fort Benning, Georgia. Larson also was awarded a Purple Heart with his name engraved on the back.
Larson’s platoon sergeant wrote the story of his battle and how Larson earned the Silver Star metal in May 1967, when Larson distinguished himself as valiant while serving as a squad leader with company C, First Battalion, Airborne 12th Cavalry. Larson kept a copy of the letter and read it to Kern Valley Exchange Club.
Larson’s company came under intense enemy automatic weapons fire from a well entrenched superior North Vietnamese Army force. Larson exposed himself to intense fire, to deploy his men against the hostile emplacements, personally destroying four enemy bunkers. As his squad moved forward, one of his men was hit by enemy machine gun fire, from a bunker to their front. Ordering his men to take cover, Sergeant Larson armed only with his pistol and hand grenade, assaulted the embankment emplacement, single handedly under a hail of enemy fire. While eliminating the bunker Larson captured the machine gun and directed his men to assault forward. He displayed personal bravery and aggressive leadership, heaping with the highest tradition of military service.
The Kern Valley Exchange Club honored these outstanding heroes with certificates of appreciation and after lunch a patriotically decorated cake for dessert.
