Fernando Hernandez is the last World War II hero alive in Kern Valley
Photo and story by Catherine Stachowiak
The last World War II Veteran in all of Kern Valley, Fernando Hernandez was recently at the VFW during the Honor Flight Breakfast Thursday, May 9.
He told the Kern Valley Sun, “I’ve been told that I’m the last World War II veteran out here in Kern Valley.”
Hernandez said, “I joined when I was 17 years old in 1943. And I joined the Navy.”
Hernandez has an older story to tell, being senior to our Vietnam War veterans. He said, “They put me aboard on a troop transport. We’d transport the troops back and forth. Well we’d transport the Army with all their equipment, jeeps and stuff that they had, (and) tanks.”
Before the war was over in 1945 the Navy sent Hernandez to French Indochina, which is now known as Vietnam. Former ruler of China, GeneralChiang Kai-shek’s army was there, because he was the ruler at China at that time, according to Hernandez who said the US Navy transported the Chinese Army to Formosa, which is now Taiwan.
After the war was over Hernandez was discharged and went home.
