ncore E Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Ferndale Record
A GUIDE TO A FULFILLING SENIOR LIFE IN WHATCOM COUNTY
A Lynden World War II veteran travels to Washington, D.C., to view the historic city's many monuments. See page B2.
A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
Bernie Visser, Lynden World War II vet, visits Washington, D.C., monuments Participating in Honor Flight Network, Visser felt a rush of memories of those he served with By Annika Wolters annika.wolters5@gmail.com
Bernie Visser stands at the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy photo/Nancy Nyland)
LYNDEN — Bernie Visser, an 88-yearold World War II veteran, finally got his proper thanks. With a wide grin on his face, eyes twinkling behind his glasses, Bernie shared about his “ultra super” weekend with Honor Flight Network, a donation-driven organization that flies U.S. veterans, free of charge, to visit their memorials in Washington, D.C. The trip was July 12-15. Bernie visited the World War II and Korean War memorials, the Washington and Lincoln monuments, the Vietnam Wall, the Air Force and Navy memorials and the Na-
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
ENCORE val Museum. That same day, he traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, one of his favorite parts of the weekend. “It’s so hard to explain. You’re in awe of everything,” Bernie said, his hand resting on the kitchen table at his Lynden home, fingering the pins on his Shangri-La hat. Bernie was sworn into the Navy on his 18th birthday in 1943. He spent his first year in the service joking with good pals and touring different land bases until the squadron was formed. Joining Bernie in the Navy was his buddy Elmer Wiersma, also from Lynden, who went through boot camp with Bernie at Farragut, Idaho. The two companions parted ways when Wiersma entered submarine duty and Bernie began aviation ordinance school in Norman, Okla. At 6 feet, 3 inches, Bernie was too tall to work on the submarines. When Bernie reached the South Pacific, the air war had nearly been won but the Japanese pilots were using kamikaze suicide attacks on ships. Bernie flew missions over Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan proper. He sat in a twoseater fighter plane next to the pilot, “belting ammunition” and protecting his aircraft. “Is our ship going to be there when we come back? That was what we had to worry
Bernie Visser, back right, gathers with the motorcycle escort drivers and other veterans of his Honor Flight. (Courtesy See Visser on B4
photo/Nancy Nyland)
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
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Visser: Vet experienced close-call kamikaze attack while serving Continued from B3
Bernie Visser and daughter Nancy Nyland also visited the Air Force memorial. (Courtesy photo/Nancy Nyland)
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about most,” Bernie said. “I saw the (carrier) Bunker Hill get hit, I saw the Franklin get hit and almost sunk.” While on board the Shangri-La, an island-like aircraft carrier in the Pacific, Bernie and the ship’s crew came under kamikaze attack. The carrier was within a few hundred feet of being struck on the water when a gunner’s mate “got a lucky hit with a five-inch shell” and knocked a wing off the attacking airplane. It spiraled into the water, a close call for Bernie and his fellows. “You always figure it’s going to happen to the other guy. I didn’t let it bother me,” Bernie said. “You know, just do what you got to do.” Two weeks before the end of the war, Bernie lost his buddy Wiersma when his submarine, the Bullhead, went down with all hands on board lost. When he came home in October 1945, Bernie went right to work — with little thanks from people for his war effort. He didn’t talk about the war either. This month, when he entered those monuments celebrating their bravery, Bernie said he felt a rush of memories and was reminded of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
ENCORE “You think about those who didn’t make it home,” Bernie said. “It was very emotional for me and the other vets.” Bernie’s daughter, Nancy Nyland, 64, wiped a tear from her eye as she too remembered the hundreds of people in Washington, D.C., who thanked her dad for serving. “Every time you turned around, they were over there shaking [his] hand,” Nyland said. Nyland first suggested Bernie should go on the Honor Flight more than a year ago, and Bernie was excited about it from the get-go. Nyland said her dad’s hands were “shaking” when he opened his letter of invitation, after more than a year on a waiting list. When the Honor Flight “hub” in Puget Sound is up and running, veterans west of the Cascades will be able to fly out of SeaTac airport. The Honor Flight Network provides free weekend trips to Washington, D.C., to veterans of World War II as well as disabled and terminally ill veterans of other wars. It is estimated that between 600 and 900 World War II veterans pass away daily. Since its take-off in 2005, more than 100,000 veterans have used the Network to see military memorials. For a printable application to participate in the Honor Flight Network, visit www. honorflight.org. “I just want people to know it’s real,” Bernie said.
The Lyndenites found the pillar for Washington at the World War II memorial. (Courtesy photo/Nancy Nyland)
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
Japanese students to teach He has his name in the origami at Ferndale Senior languages of the world — Activity Center from his students
Compass USA program comes to Ferndale for first time By Mark Reimers news@ferndalerecord.com
FERNDALE — Nineteen students from a girls’ high school in Japan will stop in at the Ferndale Senior Activity Center on Thursday, Aug. 1, at about 12:45 p.m. The visitors, who will be staying with area host families from July 22 through Aug. 11, are planning to share about Japanese culture and teach origami at the center. Holly Wibbon, a teacher at Horizon Middle School, said the program has been in Bellingham for many years and it was decided to extend a separate group from the same school to Ferndale this year. The students, from Tokyo Joshi High School, spend their three weeks in Whatcom County attending an English language class in the mornings and participating in activities and field trips during the afternoon. Wibbon said she was a host for several years before the Compass USA organization hired her to be the program coordinator for the Ferndale extension. The Ferndale Senior Activity Center visit will fulfill one of the essential elements required of all students: community service. The Bellingham Senior Center has
already benefited from a similar activity with the students every summer, Wibbon said, and since this was a new program and she was new, it only made sense to bring a similar event to Ferndale. Ferndale center manager Barbara Fischer said the students are set to arrive directly after lunch. Seniors should feel welcome to bring grandkids along as well. Wibbon said she is hoping for a great turnout of seniors and kids, especially for the cultural value it affords. Wibbon noted that the value isn’t lost on the Japanese students either, who come from a culture where seniors are highly valued and extended families often live together. This is a chance for them to compare and contrast the two experiences. About 100 students from Tokyo Joshi High School travel with the program every year, Wibbon said. Most of those students have studied the English language for years previous and they only get better at speaking it while taking classes here. The students themselves will bring paper and teach origami. Wibbon said the interaction is good for everybody — seniors get to interact with young people, which they enjoy doing, while also getting some mental stimulation. They can even make something for their families and show them how to do it. For more information about the Ferndale Senior Activity Center, visit www. ferndaleseniorcenter.org or call 3846244.
Alvin DeJong collected his name written in the languages of the world by his students when he taught at California Polytechnic State University. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)
Alvin DeJong, from Lynden, is back after 37 years of college teaching By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com
LYNDEN — From 37 years of teaching at a California university, Alvin DeJong can point to many things that give him satisfaction: a faculty award in 2003, a big farewell greetings placard in 2006,
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and ongoing contacts with former students. But certainly the most unique is a display in his South Park Street basement — his name written in the languages of the world. It started when a student from Iran at California Polytechnic State University wrote “Alvin DeJong” in Farsi script, a language of the Middle East, on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. The name got erased, so professor DeJong asked her to rewrite it on a card for him to keep. “I thought, ‘when will I ever have a
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
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chance to get that again?’” he mused. He standardized the process to 8-by10-inch artboard cards. A Russian student did his Cyrillic language, and so it went. DeJong took note of students connected to an unusual language. He invited them to write his name as it would appear if he were reported on in a newspaper in their country. “It intrigued the students when they learned about it,” he explains. “It was kind of an honor for them.” DeJong, 70, a native of Lynden who retired here, now has 26 of the cards mounted. Separately, he keeps track of who did what language, not exactly all of them former students. For instance, he obtained his Pujabi contribution from someone he met here in Whatcom County. His English entry is the name plate from his Cal-Poly office door. He doesn’t have any more of the European languages, he notes, since they are very similar in their Latin base. Many of the languages are Asian or Eastern. He has these: Korean, Arabic, Braille, Urdu, Gujarati, Hebrew, (both script and print), Burmese, Japanese, Hindi, Greek, Cantonese, Aramaic (Assyrian), Ukranian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese and Mandarin. A student from India used a contact in Egypt to get a plate done for DeJong in See DeJong on B8
This is Alvin DeJong’s name written in Farsi, the language of Iran, the first entry that started his collection. Inset: his office name plate at Cal-Poly. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Ferndale Record
DeJong: Trusted students to write actual name
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This is his name in Chinese characters, with a double meaning of “Love Thy Work. Teach Forever.” (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune) Continued from B7 the ancient hieroglyphics from the time of the pyramids. DeJong considers the story behind his Cantonese entry to be most remarkable. Once the student and his parents had finished working on the characters for the sound of Alvin DeJong’s name, the meaning turned out to be: Love Thy Work. Teach Forever. “Of all the professions I could be associated with, for it to come out that way,” he marveled. DeJong jokes that he had to trust his students to actually write his name and not something like “I Hate Cheese,” although he has had backup confirmation of what they wrote in a few instances. Language was not his area of teach-
ing. His specialty within biology was zoophysiology, or the study of body function in humans and animals. Many of his junior- and senior-level students were heading into health fields. Some were also second-generation transplants into the United States, although still versed in their parents’ language from another country. DeJong said he appreciated the moderate climate of San Luis Obispo — along the Pacific coast northwest of Los Angeles — but figured he would likely return to Lynden. He went to part-time teaching in 2006, then retired fully in 2011. He attended Lynden High School during the “golden years of basketball” (state titles in 1961 and 1962), then went on to Seattle Pacific College and Washington State University.
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