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NOVEMBER 9, 2019

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A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 3

Arden Moser U.S. Army

Korean War – Valencia Resident

By Caleb Lunetta Signal Staff Writer

C

pl. Arden Moser is a man who has been recognized by his country, and who has heard theaters across the country applaud his music.

But the day he gave her the compass was the day he got the only approval he ever truly wanted.

He now sits in a room filled with items such as his military commendations, trumpets that shared the stage with jazz legends and wood drums he played while teaching musicians in Kenya.

And yet the item he carried in his pocket every day to show people was that compass.

He’s been called an Army Ranger, television producer and band leader. But most of all, he likes that her kids called him “Dad.” However, before Arden Moser could have that compass, he and his company would need to find their way home after being caught 9 miles behind enemy lines during the Korean War.

Northern Ohio

Arden Moser was born Jan. 1, 1929, in Carey, Ohio, where we would live with his parents and older sister until the family moved to his beloved hometown of Upper Sandusky, 15 miles south of Lake Erie.

He learned to play and love music while there, but

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receiving a formal arts education was almost out of the question.

“My sister had been able to go to college on scholarship, but I had never been as smart as my sister and scholarships for (me) were out of the question,” he said.

But by the time his high school graduation came, Moser had concocted a plan that would get him to college for free, and at the same time he could continue to play his music.

“I decided to join the service,” he said. “I went in there for one reason and it wasn’t because I was patriotic … It was because they had finally settled on the G.I. Bill.”

Heading out West

“I made it clear to (the recruiters) that I was only doing it so I could afford school,” said Moser.

“So, I talked them into putting me into the band training service.”

On July 1, 1947, Private First Class Moser arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he was ordered to take up a trumpet in one hand and an M-1 rifle in another. And unlike the other greenhorns, who only had to complete 13 weeks of basic military training, Moser was required to complete the standard training in addition to eight weeks of drilling with the 5th Division Band.

When he had finally completed his training, the military-trained rifleman and trumpeter was once again shipped off, but this time to Fort Bliss, Texas.

The young musician, who had only joined the Army to pay for college, remarked that it was his first experience playing in a professional band.

Back from the South

Following World War II, the U.S. Army went

through a period of “demobilization,” meaning that budget cuts by President Harry Truman had taken the once large military from 12 million personnel to 1.5 million personnel by 1947 — a 90% overall decrease, according to the Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army.

“I was so scared and I asked them, ‘But what about my G.I. Bill? I only joined so that I could go to college,’” Moser recalled.

His commanding officer presented him with a solution, telling him to “join the reserves.”

After returning home on Nov. 30, 1948, with a year of service, Moser would get married, find work, complete at least one year of school with the money he had saved, and sign up for the reserves.

The Far East

In what would be considered one of the first major global incidents as a result of the Cold War, the “police action in Korea” resulted in the mass deployment of U.S. forces to the peninsula through the summer and fall of 1950, according to the Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army.

However, due to Truman’s call for mass demobilization in the years immediately following the war, the same policy that had removed Moser in the first place, now considered him a different kind of asset.

“I went from being in the band, to having some guy looking at my records and saying, ‘He’s had some training already so let’s make him a (1st Ranger),’” said Moser.

An elite airborne light infantry group, 1st Ranger Infantry Company was used only during the Korean War, and has been described as a small group of spe-

cial forces who specialized in “irregular warfare.”

“We had to learn everything from riflery, to scouting to even survival training in case we had pushed too far and were cut off,” said Moser. “It was a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of crawling through the mud.”

For his part in the Korean War, Moser served as the “typical” Ranger, he said, working to creatively disrupt or impede enemy logistical operations all the while pushing further and further behind Chinese military lines.

And by Jan. 16, 1951, the Rangers were called upon to readily throw themselves into known Chinese ambushes as their elite group, with a trumpeter among them, provided the vital intelligence and pressure needed for an American and United Nations counteroffensive.

Feeling lost

Moser was honorably discharged from the 1st Ranger Infantry Company on July 30, 1951, after serving in the 5th Division band, Army Reserves and Army Rangers for a total of four years, one month and 18 days.

Moser ended as an E-3 corporal and earned a Korean service medal for his conduct during the first few months of the Korean War. After returning home, Moser finally finished college, worked in TV stations as a producer across the country and continued to play in bands.

But while his professional life continued to flourish, his home life had quickly deteriorated. While he had three daughters who “he still loves dearly,” the divorce papers between him and his first wife had already been drafted.

Then, on a business trip to the Atlanta area where he had lived for a handful of years after the war, Moser decided to call up an old neighbor of his by the name of Mary Faith.

“She gets on the phone and says that she had just got divorced,” said Moser. “To which I responded, ‘Mary Faith, what a coincidence, because I am getting divorced, too. Would you like to go to dinner with me?’”

Moser says they had not seen each other in 17 years, but by the end of that first date they “had fallen in love.” The very next morning he called his lawyer, and told him to send the divorce papers through.

On his way home from calling the lawyer, Moser was walking by a storefront when a “little plastic

Left: Arden Moser playing he trumpet. Right: Moser (far right) at a mortor position in Korea.

compass inside the display” caught his eye.

“Mary Faith the previous night had said the divorce had left her ‘feeling lost,’” he explained. “So, I bought the compass, went home and inserted a little piece of paper inside the clasp that read, ‘So that you may never get lost again.’”

Found

Moser and Mary Faith married on Dec. 30, 1983, and were together for the next three decades, “She had Alzheimer’s and it forced us to move to an assisted living home together,” said Moser.

“And one day, after years of not thinking about it, I saw that compass sitting on her nightstand. And although she was very sick at the point, she always remembered to pick up the compass before she left her bedroom during the day and always put it back on the nightstand at night.”

After Mary Faith died, Moser continued her legacy by carrying that compass every day.

“She was a very special lady and marrying her was the finest thing I ever did in my life,” said Moser.

“She was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and still to this day that compass was the most important thing I ever owned.”

Arden Moser during World War II. A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 5

CarlU.S.Schena Navy

World War II — Valencia Resident

By Caleb Lunetta Signal Staff Writer

F

ew people can walk into a museum, look upon something and say, “I did that.”

Carl Schena can.

Fewer people can walk up to that artifact or object that’s been deemed worthy of immortalization, and look at vandalism or damage it has incurred, and say, “I did that.”

Carl Schena can.

And an even smaller fraction of those people can say, “I did that” and have hordes of students and people surrounding him, saying they were studying what he did in school for the last couple of months.

Carl Schena can.

From behind a mounted 3-inch gun, Schena did what hadn’t been done in more than century of American warfare. He helped crack the German Enigma code and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Because Carl Schena helped capture U-boat 505.

Early Life

Schena was born Sept. 13, 1921, in Revere, Massachusetts, to Michael and Antonette Schena, a construction worker and homemaker, respectively.

Schena is one of 12 children (five brothers and six sisters), growing up in the midst of the Depression.

However, as he puts it: “It was a good life.”

“We never went without food or clothing, and we got along pretty well,” said Schena. Growing up in

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those times, and in a more rural part of Massachusetts, kids from the neighborhood had to make their own “fun.”

“We used to throw rocks at each other,” said Schena. “The neighborhood guys would get together and throw rocks at each other, or we’d get an old tire and ride down the street inside of it.

“What’s growing up without some cuts and bruises?” he added.

Schena said life was simple even when his dad was out of work.

The family had its own garden, they had a hog they would slaughter, and his dad had a still in the basement for making moonshine.

“He just made it for himself,” said Schena. “A lot of the neighborhood made booze and was selling it; you could smell it in the air. It had a special odor.”

In high school, Schena described himself as being shy, and not an exceptional student. By the time he was in the ninth grade, he would drop out and join the Civilian Conservation Corps.

From the still, to the pig, to his shovel in the Civilian Conservation Corps, Schena lived a happy life, he said. He owned nothing, but wanted for nothing.

Nothing does not end up in museums. Nothing gets you “the good life,” but something was in the future of Carl Schena after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

U.S. Navy

Within two months of the Japanese attack on U.S. naval vessels in Hawaii, Schena joined the Navy. He was in the South Pacific for a year before he was sent back to the U.S. for re-assignment.

During that time, war (and therefore technology) was rapidly changing. The guns got bigger and the armor got thicker. The planes could go faster, so spotting them had to be quicker. And with the advent of the submarine, particularly the German U-boat, the

need for hunting vessels became apparent.

“I was put on a destroyer escort,” said Schena. “We saw some convoy duty and then we were assigned to a task group.”

Among his group were five destroyers and an aircraft carrier, he said. And for months, Schena was behind a 3-inch gun on the bow of the ship out on the deep parts of the ocean.

Following World War I and the advent of the submarine as a favored tool of war by Germany, the American Navy needed ways to quell the danger underneath the waves. In order to do this, the destroyer class was created and the ships were equipped with both sonar and depth charges.

The name of the charges used

by USS Jenks, the destroyer Schena was on, was MK9: It weighed 300 pounds, contained 200 pounds of TNT, and could explode from anywhere between 30 and 600 feet down in the water.

The explosions would either destroy the U-boats or force them to rise, and that’s when Schena, with his topside gun, would take over.

“We made different stops,” Schena said, adding that he visited the Irish and Spanish coasts, always searching for submarines while escorting the aircraft carrier, the Guadalcanal.

U-505

Because of some of the messages that the U.S. had decrypted, the Allies had learned that a group of U-boats was operating near South America and attacking vessels.

In response, they dispatched the “Hunter-Killer” group, Task Group 22.3, which included the Guadalcanal and five destroyer escorts, including Schena and the USS Jenks.

“We were on a hunting trip,” said Schena, remembering back on the historical mission he was a part of 75 years ago.

However, after sailing around off of Port Blanco, the crews of Task Group 22.3 were losing hope because, after weeks of searching, they hadn’t found any German U-boats — let alone the 505 — underneath the waves.

“For weeks, a U.S. Navy task group had tracked a shadowy U-boat. Despite a crack team and the latest technology, the task group was unable to pinpoint their elusive prey,” writes the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. “Low on fuel, the frustrated captain had just called off the search when … there was something on the sonar.”

But with the sun shining down, blue water all around, and American sailors scrubbing decks and going through the motions of their daily duties, the winds turned in the Allies’ fortunes.

“We were just about to leave when one of our destroyers made contact with a sub with the sonar and we were assigned to assist,” said Schena. “And that’s when the sub decided to surface.”

Strafing alongside U-505, Schena says he buried two 3-inch rounds in the conning tower of the submarine.

After a short chase, the German crew of the submarine knew they were done. They subsequently surrendered, but Daniel V. Gallery, commander of the escort carrier Guadalcanal, told Schena’s ship not to sink the submarine. Even as the crew was jumping out, cracking the secret of the U-boat could help win the war, and Gallery wanted “to capture that bastard, if possible.

“The crew abandoned the submarine, and we had all our rowboats out there to pick up the German sailors,” Schena said.

However, the Germans did not leave U-505 before placing explosive charges throughout the submarine.

They would rather let the U-505 sink to the bottom of the ocean than fall into enemy hands.

“Our sailors went down there,” Schena said. “They were very cautious about going throughout the ship because anything they touched could potentially explode the ship. Fortunately, the crew members forgot to set the timers on the explosives.”

There were 13 charges throughout the ship, and the seamen of Task Group 22.3 were able to catch and preserve not only one of Hitler’s most deadly

U.S. Navy veteran Carl Schena scans a book about the capture of the German U-boat U-505 on June 4, 1944. The capture of U-505 helped the Allies secure an Enigma machine, which the Germans used to relay their “unbreakable” code.

PHOTO BY DAN WATSON / THE SIGNAL

vessels, but also one of only six U-boats ever captured by the Allies, according to German scholar Erich Groner.

In fact, it was the first time the U.S. Navy had captured an enemy vessel on the high seas since the War of 1812, according to the United States Naval History and Heritage Command.

But not only was the U-boat itself — and the actual functions of the vessel — important for the Allies to understand, but it was what was inside the boat that was even more valuable. That’s because inside the U-boat was a German Enigma Machine, the “uncrackable” code-maker of the Third Reich, according to the Historic Naval Ships Association.

Schena, to this day, holds that he and his crewmates knew what they had done. They knew they had helped in capturing the key to the unbreakable code, but they were sworn to secrecy, told for decades afterward to never tell a soul about what they had done on June 4, 1944.

The U-505 would be towed to Bermuda in secret and her crew would be interned in secret. But her secrets would help win the war, and a 23-year-old Schena saw it all.

But for him, it was never about the credit because, two days after U-505 was captured by the task group and crew of the USS Jenks, Allied troops stepped onto the beaches of Normandy.

“I think what we gave them assisted in the invasion of Europe,” said Schena.

Bronze Star

Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Schena was discharged Sept. 30, 1945, after receiving a number of commendations, including the Bronze Star for his actions in capturing U-505.

For years, he was never truly allowed to tell people

why he had received the citation — just that he had participated in a mission that was important to the war effort.

He went on to raise two kids with his wife, move to California, and worked at a variety of odd jobs in search of the good life.

A few years back, his son invited him on a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

As they walked in, Schena said he got emotional because he knew what was housed there.

As they walked into a massive room, with crowds of people circling around her 251-foot long frame, Schena saw the infamous U-505, preserved, intact.

Trophy-style lights now shine down on her, visitors now walk through her, and curators lead tours around her.

And still punctured into her conning tower were the two holes Schena bored into her.

“There was a teacher who had her whole classroom there, and they all came over and wanted my autograph,” said Schena. “The teacher said they had been studying (U-505) in preparation for their trip to the museum.”

“That day, he was a celebrity,” Schena’s son, Carl, chimed in.

For years, he kept this secret. For years, no one knew what he and fellow members of the task group had done. But Schena stood there and modestly answered questions for the inquisitive minds of children and museum curators.

“It’s something that happened in my life,” Shena said with humility, “and you kind of push it aside.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 7

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Bill Higgs

U.S. Marine Corps World War II — Valencia Resident

By Caleb Lunetta Signal Staff Writer

A

t the age of 96, Cpl. Bill Higgs died at a hospice facility in Valencia, just 36 hours after this interview. His story is told here in the words of his two sons, who lovingly spoke for their father when he was no longer able to do so.

Higgs was a former Marine Raider, who served in one of the most horrific and defining battles of World War II. He also was a retired Los Angeles Police Department investigator, who served the LAPD during one of the most tumultuous times in that city’s history.

His death came just a day and a half after meeting a journalist along with his two sons, who spent more than an hour talking about his experiences ranging from being a soldier involved in the Pacific theater, to witnessing firsthand as the communist takeover in China unfolded, to visiting five of the seven continents during his retirement.

“He lived the most exciting, interesting and hard life, but the only word he would have agreed with in describing his life would’ve been calling it ‘hard,’” said Doug Higgs, Bill’s oldest son.

“He didn’t talk much about his stories from the war,” Tim Higgs said. “He was strict, but he never hit us. He made sure we knew right from wrong.”

“Strict and stringent, but very kind,” Doug added.

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Cpl. Bill Higgs was in the Marine Corps. But his sons were never pushed toward following in their dad’s military footsteps. Their dad rode a motorcycle every day for 18 years, but he forbade them from ever owning a bike. He never finished high school, but his sons knew messing around in class meant speaking with him when they got home.

They wanted to be like their Dad, who was silent, confident “American steel.” But what their father knew and he would never let his sons understand, was steel is tempered by fire.

Working on the railroad

Before his life was spent traversing the globe, Higgs’ story began in a small, poor area in Baltimore.

He was born on Aug. 15, 1922, into a family that began as the quintessential American experience, despite being in the slums of Baltimore. Like many living during that time, the stock market crash took things from bad to worse very quickly for the Higgs family.

“The Depression hit, and then when he was 13 years old his mother passed away,” said Tim. “His father remarried but he never really liked that situation.”

Wanting to be nowhere near the house, their father dropped out of school after finishing the 10th grade and got a job working on the railroad in his port city hometown.

However, by the time he was 16, Higgs had had enough of his home life, and walked to the harbor, lied about his age, and joined the Marine Corps for the first time. He made it as far as Guantanamo Bay before they caught him.

“They brought him back the states, and since he didn’t want to go back to his family, they were going to throw him in an institution for being an ‘incorri-

gible youth,’” said Doug.

But a phone call from his uncle Mutt’s boss, a congressman, resulted in a young Bill Higgs being sent to his grandparents in rural Maryland.

His grandparents’ farm would be a place where he would learn the value of hard work and respect for his family, and it became his home away from home until he got another crack at joining the Marines.

Cold iron

Bill Higgs joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1940 — before the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the war — not out of patriotism or because of a lifelong dream to be a soldier, but because of a Depression-era practical reason.

“He told me he joined the Marines because he wanted three squares and a dry bed,” said Doug.

Then, after enlisting and shipping off, and while the young Marine was at jump school in South Carolina, Col. Merritt A. Edson came around and asked for volunteers to join his brand new “elite-of-the-elite” group of Marines, according to Tim. “He volunteered not because he had something to prove, but the pay was $100 more a month,” said Tim. And so it was decided: Bill Higgs became an “Edson Raider.”

The 1st Raider Battalion, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, was created by Edson with the hope they would become America’s first special operations forces established during World War II, mirroring the training patterns established by the British Special Air Service.

“My father never really talked highly about officers or anyone in command in Marine Corps,” said Tim. “Except Edson. He respected the hell out of Edson.”

They were trained to be specialists in a variety of firearms, and were taught how to conduct special amphibious light infantry warfare, particularly in landing in rubber boats, and how to operate behind the lines, according to theU.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

The Raiders were assigned to the Pacific, and would eventually be called on to take their training — which would become the prototype of every Marine Raider battalion formed throughout the war — to the island of Tulagi and, eventually, Guadalcanal.

Tulagi and Guadalcanal

Both Tulagi and Guadalcanal are in the Solomon islands in the Pacific, and the campaign for Allied troops to conquer them is one of the most extensively written about in World War II. The accounts typically begin on Aug. 7, 1942, when the “Midnight Raid on Guadalcanal” occurred, and end approximately around Feb. 7, 1943, when the Japanese were ordered to evacuate the small island. Code-named “Operation Watchtower,” the Guadalcanal campaign resulted in approximately 15,000 American troops being either killed or injured, but was a turning point in the war in the Pacific, according to the Marine Raider Association.

In his book, “Helmet for my Pillow,” Pfc. Robert Leckie describes the approximately six-month-long campaign for the islands from a first-person point of view, calling it “a darkness without time. It was an impenetrable darkness.”

Higgs’ sons say their father seemed to share that sentiment. But unlike Leckie, their father was very clear, throughout his life, that he wouldn’t talk about what happened at Tulagi or Guadalcanal.

They know through their own private research that their father

Higgs in uniform during World War II, as a part of the 1st Raider Battalion.

had been at Edson’s Ridge, a pivotal moment in the war in the South Pacific. According to the Marine Raider Association, American forces rebutted a number of Japanese attempts to retake a critical airfield on the island.

Beyond that, the sons say there wasn’t much more their father would go into regarding his part in the battle on Guadalcanal.

“He really only ever said two things about Guadalcanal, and the first was that they were told by the officers that they shouldn’t be afraid of the Japanese because they were only using .25-caliber ammunition,” said Doug. “The second thing he told us was that he never made friends while in the Marine Corps, because the first thing wasn’t true.”

China

Following the campaign in Guadalcanal and the conclusion of World War II, Higgs was sent to China to be a part of United States’ failed attempt to prevent Mao Zedong from leading the People’s Liberation Army to overthrow and run Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang government forces out of the country.

“It was so dangerous in China, when he walked around, he carried a walking stick that had a knife in the handle,” said Doug.

Following that, Higgs was honorably discharged at Camp Pendleton in California on March 19, 1947, as an E-3 corporal. He had received recognition as a member of the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine divisions, a Marine Expert Rifleman and was given a Navy Presidential Unit Citation.

He joined the LAPD in 1948, and launched a successful 26-year career working as everything from a motorcycle officer, to fingerprints specialist, to undercover vice officer, to investigator with the 77th Division, which includes Watts.

“He rode his motorcycle through the 1965 Watts Riots, and for a week he would come home covered in beer,” said Doug. “Not because he was drinking, but because they were throwing bottles at the motorcycle officers.”

He served in the department until 1974, when he was able to retire at the age of 52. After five decades of “fearing for his life every day,” according to Tim, he took his wife on trips and cruises to five of the seven continents. He even returned to China.

Bonded

And while they looked over their father with

(Top row, left to right) Tim Higgs, Doug Higgs, Bill Higgs and Vivian Higgs.

loving eyes, and a journalist frantically scratched out notes to what he thought would be a story of “Rambo vs. the world,” a twist in the story appeared. Doug and Tim are actually half brothers.

“When Mom and Dad met I was already born,” said Doug. “She was working as a carhop in North Hollywood when they met and she was a single mom.”

In 1959, Bill married Vivian Wrenn, Doug and Tim’s mother, with Doug almost 2 years old. Tim was born in 1960.

“He never told us how that whole thing happened,” said Tim. “He raised me as his son,” said Doug. “I have his last name, I think of him as my father and Tim as my brother.”

“I put it together when I was a teenager and I asked him about it only one time and he said, ‘I asked your mother one time also,’” Doug said. “‘And she tore into me and never answered the question.

That was the last time we talked about it. You’re my son, and that’s that,’ he told me.”

“He was American steel,” said Doug. “But he was also kind, compassionate and a fine man. But, most importantly, he was our dad.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 11

Roger Carl

U.S. Navy and Air Force World War II –­Valencia Resident

By Caleb Lunetta Signal Staff Writer

Y

ou can tell Air Force Tech. Sgt. Roger Carl is bright.

With his quick wit and a deep laugh, he’ll tell you about circuits, grids and how there’s a whole amateur radio world out there based on communication, electronics and frequencies that he knows all about.

However, in the moments when his passion for all things electronic do not fill the void, there’s silence.

He can pepper you with quick facts about his role in the Pacific, but any anecdotal memory has slipped beyond his faculties.

He grinds his teeth, shuts his eyes and strains to remember certain things. Sometimes he’s successful and he laughs; other times he says “it’s too much” and he can’t remember, but still laughs.

However, during those moments when he’s laughing out of success and not out of forgetfulness, you’re given the image of a man whose current faculties don’t accurately portray his service in the Philippines; how he stayed alive although his ship

Roger Carl enlisted in the Navy as a 17-year-old, as soon as he was eligible.

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was consistently strafed by Japanese pilots; or a man who served for close to two decades in the U.S. military around the globe.

And, with the help of his son, a few online archives and his successful recollections, the story of Roger Carl proves that a harmonious conception of memory can be brilliant.

Humble beginnings

Carl was born Aug. 28, 1926, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to James and Irma, a disabled World War I vet and a woman who “did a little bit of everything,” respectively.

“My father hurt his back during the war,” said Carl, adding to he never really knew how his father had been injured. “And Mom did laundry mostly, but she’d do anything she could.”

The harsh winters of southern Michigan, coupled with the Depression coming into full swing soon after the birth of Carl, created hardship for his family, Carl said. Especially considering his father’s health.

Carl was the family’s youngest of three.

“We were kind of poor, but it didn’t really make a difference to me because I was so young. But my parents dealt with the brunt of it,” said Carl. “So, when I was 5 years old, we moved to Tucson, Arizona, and we lived in the boonies.”

To fill his time, where the land was cheap but people were sparse, Carl became friends with another boy around his age named Cecil Teague. Together they would, from before the time Carl was 10 years old, take their .22-caliber rifles out into the wilderness so as to camp and live off of a diet of fresh rabbit and whatever else they brought along.

“We would hike and take those rifles out for a couple days,” said Carl. “I was an outdoorsy guy.”

Carl’s son, Warren, said his grandparents hosted dance parties, particularly square-dancing parties, in Tucson, and while at those parties, his father developed a lifelong love for that particular style of dance.

World War II Veteran Roger Carl spent his years in the Navy as an electrician aboard an infantry-landing craft that traveled the world. Following an injury and honorable discharge, Carl resumed those duties in the Air Force, where he served for more than 15 years.

PHOTO BY CALEB LUNETTA / THE SIGNAL

In the southern Arizona desert, as well as becoming an excellent shot and an avid hiker, Carl also developed a love for music and a deft hand on the trumpet.

“I played for quite a bit,” said Carl. “I wasn’t the best student, but I really liked my music.”

But before he could see if the trumpet and stage would be his pathway to a successful life, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States was thrust into a war against the Axis powers in both Europe and the Pacific. And a year before the landing on D-Day, the U.S. Navy would be receiving yet

another new recruit.

Anchors away

On his 17th birthday, before his high school graduation, Roger Carl walked into the Navy recruitment office and told them that day officially marked the day he was eligible to enlist in the armed forces. The date was Aug. 28, 1941.

In 1939, before declaring war on Japan, Germany and their allies, the U.S. military had a total of 49,181 young recruits sign their enlistment cards.

In 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth Act imposed the first peacetime draft and the eligible registration age was established as 21 to 36 years. That year, nearly 348,683 young men were drafted.

By November 1942, with the United States now a participant in the war, the draft ages were expanded to include 18- to 37-year-old men. Seventeen year olds required their parents’ permission. As a result, enlistment card numbers skyrocketed with 3,030,407 joining in 1942, and 1,839,363 in 1943.

Looking back on his some 75-plus years of service, Carl said his memories are somewhat spotty. But, he does recall parts of his service in the Pacific, that he served on the infantry landing craft LCI(G)-558 as an electrician and that he had served in a number of dangerous operations.

“They would ferry men to the beach and they would drop them off,” said son Warren. “They were strafed by kamikaze pilots a few times, but he never really talked about it much. There was a whole different thing going on back then when it came to talking about your military service.”

On board the ship, Carl functioned as one of the craft’s multiple electricians, fixing a “little bit of everything” on the vessel.

For as much as his memories have faded, Roger Carl recalled with clarity when the LCI(G)-558 he served on was in port in the Philippines. He recalls the boat being tied up and running on the not-as-powerful, in-dock power sources when they heard enemy planes closing in on them.

“We had to shut the boat off and restart it,” said Carl, who closed his eyes and ground his teeth in an effort to remember it all. “We had to disconnect everything, and then restart it so we could separate ourselves.”

For his total amount of time spent in Navy, Carl was aboard the LCI(G)-558, he says, and according to the U.S. Landing Craft Infantry National Association, Carl then likely served in the following operations: Leyte Operation on Oct. 20, 1944; the Manila BayBicol Operations; the Luzon Operation — where the ship participated in Lingayen Gulf Landings from Jan. 4-18, 1945 — and finally the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto from March 25 to June 30, 1945.

Air Force

After being honorably discharged from the Navy due to a broken femur he sustained while “doing something stupid” close to the end of his first enlistment, Carl returned home to Tucson to finally finish college at the age of 20.

However, he said he wanted back in.

“The Navy didn’t have much use for a limp,” said Carl. “But the Air Force took me in.”

Carl immediately assumed his duties once again as an electrician, but this time for the Air Force. He served with the Air Force for a little more than 15 years.

Carl was honorably discharged as an E-6 tech sgt. at the end of a 20-year career in the military service. This was a career that spanned two branches and multiple oceans and countries.

“I worked on radios for (my son),” Carl said. His son added that his father would be interested in communications technology — particularly ham radios — for the rest of his life.

Retired

Carl later attended college, but he wound up leaving the classroom once again for a job with the Los Angeles City Bureau of Standards.

He had two children and, after a long career working for the government in both the military and Los Angeles, he finally retired and moved to Nevada.

“They were pretty active square dancers and pret-

Although part of a different series, the ship Carl served on would function similarly to this one, unloading troops on the beach head. PHOTO COURTESY USS LANDING CRAFT INFANTRY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

ty social people,” said Warren, referencing his father and stepmom, Peggy.

Warren added that a few years back, he was able to experience something with his father and was able to delve a little bit into the world that his father has nearly forgotten.

“A couple of years ago, he was on the Honor Flight program, where (the nonprofit) flew him to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II memorial,” Warren said. Warren had been invited as his father’s guardian. “He was impressed. I mean, he just said, ‘It’s a pretty impressive place.’”

As he sits in his home at Sunrise Sterling Canyon, the memories might have somewhat faded, but there are reminders that bring him back: like visiting a monument with his fellow former sailors; thinking about his lifelong leg injury; or talking about the hearing loss he incurred from the guns being fired overhead.

And if you find the right light, Carl’s memories shine through.

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 13

Michael Dalby

U.S. Navy Vietnam War –­Valencia Resident

By Caleb Lunetta Signal Staff Writer

‘T

he pain of parting is nothing.”

Petty Officer Second Class Michael “Mike” Dalby would likely agree with Charles Dickens on this one.

Dalby has always loved being in the water. He’s always enjoyed, and excelled at, playing pool. He always wanted to travel the world.

Unfortunately, because of a delayed wartime injury, he struggles to do those things anymore. In fact, it’s hard for him to remember if he’s even recently enjoyed a pool soak or broke a billiards rack because he likely lost the notebook or notebooks in which he chronicled that he had, in fact, done those things.

But if you ask him directly, Dalby will not look for

your pity. He won’t compare or contrast his plight against your’s or anyone’s.

Instead, he’ll tell you with a smile about the time he first went boogie boarding in Venice. Or the marine life he and only a few other people have witnessed before in the most remote parts of Vietnam.

Or that he could “make a night out of 75 cents,” back when he was on leave in Jamaica, if he and the cue ball were in harmony.

He had to leave those passions behind. But when those recollections change mental classifications, you can see his face light up. Because, in lieu of the short term, he’s been able to regain a strongerthan-ever and vivid long-term memory.

“And it’s like it was yesterday.”

Early life

Dalby was born Sept. 9, 1947, in a Los Angelesarea hospital to Betty Marie, a stay-at-home mom, and Thomas Dalby, a movie distributor.

Growing up, he was a typical Southern California kid: sunshine every day, pretty girls to hang around with and — most importantly — the beach was only a bike ride away.

And although it was already being called the “Slum by the Sea,” the Venice of the 1950s was safe enough that if one stared from the beach out over the water, there was a chance you would see Mike Dalby and his friends enjoying the Pacific Ocean.

“I was riding my bike almost every day to Venice or Santa Monica, as soon as my parents would let me ride out on my own,” Dalby recounted. “I mean, I’d

The USS Wallace L. Lind was laid down in 1944, and remained operational until the 1970s. This picture was taken in 1970 off the coast of Hawaii, only a handful of years after Dalby had served as her “Oil and Water King.”

PHOTO COURTESY NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND OFFICE 14 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

get sunburned every time. But it was worth it … I love the water.”

So strong was his bond with the waves, that it defined what Dalby would want to do the moment he turned 17.

USS Wallace L. Lind

Before completing Culver City High School, Dalby made the decision to join the Navy in 1964, a week after turning 17, pursuing his two lifelong dreams of traveling the world and being close to the water.

However, Dalby quickly learned that despite spending a majority of your time on a ship or at sea, it was generally a bad thing to be in the Navy and in the water.

“In the Navy, you don’t want to be in the water, because if you’re in the water, then your ship is sinking,” Dalby said. “That’s never a good spot to be in.

But I knew that joining the Navy meant I could go see all the great places of the world.”

In the first stop on what would amount to be a journey around the world, Dalby was sent to San Diego for boot camp. He subsequently shipped out to receive training in engineering and naval firefighting.

He quickly learned on his first assignment aboard the USS Wallace L. Lind (DD-703) that there are no one-trick ponies in the Navy, and according to Dalby, when he wasn’t firefighting, he was going to be “Oil and Water King.”

“My job was to run up and down, making sure the tanks all over the ship held the necessary fresh water and oil.”

And while the “uninitiated” may not realize the importance of the sea monarch, the “Oil King,” donned in an oil-stained shirt and pants, controlled the ship ballast and all of the fresh water. The role is one of the most “mighty important men for you and your ship,” according to the November 1958 issue of See Dalby, on page 16

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A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 15

Dalby, continued from page 14

“All Hands” naval magazine.

So, for a little over a year, a high school dropout teenager who had a lifelong fascination with the water, was the person who ensured hundreds of sailors would never end up in the Navy’s version of a “bad spot.”

Vietnam

“I was sent over there (to Vietnam) and put on a landing craft that we operated on the Cua Viet River, and we would carry fuel on the river for the Marine Corps.”

Dalby said it became clear to him that while the open ocean was “crystal clear” during the day, he was now in the antithetical bog close to the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

“When we’d be going down the river, we could only hear when the (Viet Cong) artillery strikes were going to happen,” Dalby said. “We’d have to get ashore and get in the bunker for 10 or 15 minutes. We’d always count (30 or 40) rounds and tell the (wartime reporters) there.”

And although the Vietcong artillery barrages would be met with a series of bombing runs by U.S. Air Force fighter jets, Dalby said it was amusing once they saw American squadrons flying back.

“The enemy would always — always — fire off a couple more rounds after they got bombed, as though to say, ‘Just to let you know, you didn’t get the guns,’” Dalby said. “Psychologically, it wore on you.”

But for every minute they spent with their ears perked toward the sky, Dalby and his river boat crew spent

two minutes staring at the weeds and foliage-covered banks of the Cua Viet.

“They’d hide their machine gun nests in there … or they would get up to the bank and float (water mines) out to try and take out the supply ship.”

This ability for the Viet Cong to take their guerilla-style warfare up to the banks of the river did not sit well with the U.S. military. Something had to be done to take out the plants and shrubbery along the river banks.

Enter Agent Orange

“I could watch them spray it,” Dalby said. “I mean, you could see them dropping (Agent Orange) from the C-130s.”

Agent Orange did its job as an herbicide. It cleared the banks, and the troops were “happy to have it,” according to Dalby.

“Because of it and the other chemicals, I got to leave Vietnam after a year,” Dalby remembers. “I thought, ‘I didn’t get hurt and I didn’t have to hurt anybody.’”

Back home, in the water

After returning home in 1967 and being honorably discharged from the Navy as a petty officer second class, Dalby was recognized for his service in the Vietnam War by his superiors.

He took up right where he left off as a teenager in Southern California, moving back to his beloved Los Angeles community, getting married and starting his family.

“I put my skills to work becoming a cost accountant, figuring out for companies, just from a blueprint, how much it would cost them to make something.”

16 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

“The Water and Oil Kings” of the U.S. Navy were tasked with ensuring the boilers and various tanks placed throughout the ship had their proper fluid levels. Photo courtesy of “All Hands,” November 1958. PHOTO COURTESY ALL HANDS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 1958

And for three decades, Dalby worked in Sun Valley, enjoying his work while supporting his family, which had grown to three children, and regularly taking them on his beloved beach days.

“I retired when I got leukemia. I couldn’t get through the day anymore, and while I was being treated for leukemia, one of my doctors — and I had never heard of this before and never even been to the VA before — sent me to the VA hospital to get a screening … they said they were never 100% sure, but they agreed I had also gotten Parkinson’s because of exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides.”

‘To the joy of meeting again’

For the past decade Dalby has lived with his Parkinson’s and leukemia, battling every day with the help of his wife, until her death, and children.

With the proper medications, when

he can get them, afford them or the VA assists him in acquiring them, he’s been able to find an unexpected silver lining, he says.

“My (short-term) memory is so bad now,” Dalby said. “But because of all this … I can remember (my childhood) — where the Dutch-designed cookie jar was at Grandma’s house or the size of her backyard — or the fun billiards games I played while in the service.”

He struggles getting to the pool tournaments he likes back home. He doesn’t have regular access to the ocean. But with his short-term memory gone, he says it’s almost nice to have those fonder, older memories return.

For Dalby, it’s painful to be parting from his passions, he says, but adds that he doesn’t want to be upset or dismayed. Because the regained memories bring joy every time he’s able to meet them again.

We Salute Those Who Served On Veterans Day, we salute the veterans and active-duty military whose courage and dedication have protected our freedom and our way of life for generations. We recognize these men and women from the Santa Clarita Valley their service and their sacrifice, their selflessness and bravery.

The Signal regularly features a story from a veteran living in the Santa Clarita Valley every Friday on our Veterans page. Anyone wishing to add a name to the list, or share a story of their service, may contact The Signal at Letters@SignalSCV.com.

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20 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

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23220 Lyons Ave. Newhall, CA 91321 (661) 430-9360 www.mhala.org A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 21

Deborah Nance U.S. Army Vietnam-era —­Newhall Resident

Her family lived above the confectionery store her mother owned until Nance was 10. That’s when her mother had a heart attack.

“They thought she was going to die, so they shipped me to live with my oldest sister in California,” Nance said. “Then she got better, and they ended up coming out. My sister got them an apartment right up the street.”

Military life

By Emily Alvarenga Signal Staff Writer

D

eborah Nance, who answers to “Dee,” describes her mother as the “grandmother” type.

“Her funeral was filled with nieces, nephews, grandkids, friends,” Nance said. “They talked about how she was their grandmother, even if it wasn’t by blood.”

Nance grew up watching her mother, the only girl of 11 children, take care of her brothers. As a child, Nance recalls going to Illinois, where her mother was from, various times to bring home a sick uncle. “So when my mom passed, then I became the ‘grandmother.’”

Early life

Nance was born Aug. 7, 1956, to Patience Elizabeth and Raymond Oliver Nance in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother was 44, and her father was 61.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” she said, laughing.

Nance was the youngest of three, born on her oldest sister’s 25th birthday.

Her mother was a typical Illinois woman who taught her to say “Yes, ma’am” and “no, ma’am.”

“I put my parents through so much,” she said. “I wasn’t a bad kid — I would just do stupid, mischievous stuff.”

22 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

Her father, who was a cook in the Army during World War I, died when Nance was 17. She was a waitress at Denny’s at the time, and everyone kept telling her how sorry they were.

“Back in those days, everyone knew the waitress,” Nance said.

“So I told my friend, ‘If one more person comes in and tells me that they’re sorry about my daddy, I’m joining the Army.’”

Not even 10 minutes later, it happened again, so, true to her word, she signed up for the service. “The day after my 18th birthday, they came and picked me up.”

She was sent to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for basic training, where she learned about the “rough stuff.”

“That’s when you’re crawling in dirt and acting like there’s a war,” Nance said.

Then, she went to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, for advanced individual training, which is when she found out she had chosen a position that entailed overseas duty.

“The recruiter didn’t tell me that a post office (assignment) is overseas duty only because civilians work the post office in the states,” Nance said. “They give you a piece of paper and tell you to pick out what you want to do.”

Infantry? Nope. Artillery? Nu-uh. Mechanic? No way. Post office? “That’s OK.” When she got her orders, she was hoping for Italy. Instead, she got Germany.

“I thought, ‘Am I reading this right? Germany?’ I was only 19 years old,” she said.

It didn’t take her long after arriving in Germany to meet someone — a fellow soldier.

“Lo and behold, I got married and he started beating the crap out of me,” Nance said. “He used to do crazy stuff to me. But I didn’t want to tell my mother because she had just lost the man that she had been with for 50 years. And what could she do? I was in Germany.”

This continued until her neighbor, a German lady, knocked on her door after her husband had left for work one day. She only spoke a little English, but told Nance, “No more, no more.”

“And that kinda got the ball to rolling, and I got help,” she said.

“The military got involved and helped me change my MOS so that I could get out of Germany.

At that point, when you are an abused wife, you just want a way out — you aren’t thinking — and whatever it is, you’ll take it.”

Nance was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to work as a legal clerk. Not even two months later, she found out she was three months’ pregnant.

Because she wasn’t divorced, she felt obligated to tell her husband, and he immediately changed his MOS and followed her to Fort Sill.

In June 1977, with only two months left in her enlistment, Nance had a baby girl.

“He kidnapped my daughter when she was a month old,” Nance said.

Nance and her roommates drove from Lawton,

Oklahoma, to San Antonio to rescue her daughter.

“I brought my daughter to my mom in California until I got out,” she said. “I wasn’t going to re-enlist after that.”

On Aug. 9, 1977, Nance was honorably discharged as an E-5 sergeant.

After the military

It was only when she got back to California after her enlistment that she was able to get a divorce. She “never looked back” after getting her daughter back.

Meanwhile, throughout her enlistment, Nance had been sending her mother nearly all of her paycheck, minus $100 for living expenses.

“She never spent a dime of all that money I sent her — I was shocked,” Nance said. “So then when I came home, she had all that money saved up.”

It was enough for a down payment, so Nance and her mother bought a house in Lake View Terrace.

Nance got a job at the post office and joined the National Guard, where she continued serving as a legal clerk for one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer.

She continued with the guard for eight years and completed her time in the military in August 1985 as a staff sergeant.

Eventually she remarried, an older man this time, but shortly into their marriage, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“I didn’t have anybody to help me take care of him, and I was taking care of my mother and my kid,” Nance said. “So I retired from the post office after 16 years.”

After battling the cancer for a year, her second husband died. They had been married for six years, but he had never updated the insurance paperwork.

“So, when he died, his wife that he hadn’t been with in 20-some years got everything,” she said. “That’s when I had to get away.”

Nance moved into a mobile home park in Castaic, where she decided to go into her third career, nursing. “Everyone told me I should be a nurse because I took care of him and my mom.”

She began working for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in 1997. Since then, she has worked every unit at the hospital and won awards for excellent service and the American Red Cross Hero award. She was also the chief union steward for 14 years.

“I just really like my job,” Nance said. “I get along with everybody. If I go into a patient’s room, and it’s

Left: Nance, second from left, was one of only three women in her Army boot camp class. Right: Nance works in an office as a clerk in the 1980s, during her time in the National Guard.

dirty, I’m going to clean it up. If that patient needs to go to the bathroom, I’m not going to call the (nursing assistant). I’m going to take them to the bathroom. We’re all nurses, we’re all supposed to take care of these patients, and that’s what I do.”

In September 2008, after Nance turned 54, she had a heart attack.

“My mom had her heart attack at 54, and both my sisters had passed away at 54,” Nance said. “So here I am at 54: In my head, I was thinking, ‘This is it.’”

When she felt the symptoms of a heart attack, her nursing kicked in and told her to take an aspirin to thin her blood, which is ultimately what saved her life.

Nance then decided to transfer from the medical floor to the psychiatric ward, thinking it would be less strenuous.

“They have takedowns every day,” she said, laughing. “Every psych nurse has been attacked — it’s part of the job. I’ve seen it all.”

‘Truly blessed’

Nance takes pride in being the nurse who sits and talks to her patients, which she believes makes a big difference.

In 2016, she went back to school to get her associate’s degree in nursing at College of the Canyons, which is what led her to discover the Veteran Enriched Neighborhood being built in Santa Clarita.

She had been living in her mobile home for 20 years, when her son, Chris, saw an ad for the Veteran community. She didn’t believe she would qualify for the house, but her son told her to “leap out on faith.”

“So I did, and I got qualified for it,” Nance said.

“I’m truly, truly blessed.”

Through the Homes 4 Families program, Nance was sent to UCLA for post traumatic stress therapy, which is required of all applicants.

“All of a sudden, I’m crying like a baby,” she said. “If you would have asked me if I had PTSD, I would’ve said ‘no.’ I wasn’t really in a war. I was stationed in Germany, and I’m a Vietnam-era veteran, but there wasn’t a war (there). Yet, I ended up having PTSD from the physical abuse of my first marriage.”

Nance went through the entire PTSD program and she appreciates Homes 4 Families for it.

“I didn’t know I was carrying that 40 years later — it was just bottled up in there,” she said.

Although Nance hasn’t had an easy life, she still says it’s a good one. Now, she is a mother of two and grandmother to two granddaughters, and her mother’s influence still resonates.

“My momma always told me to treat people the way you want to be treated,” she said. “I raised my kids the same way, and my daughter raised my granddaughters the same way.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 23

Joseph Reyes

U.S. Army Vietnam War –­Valencia Resident

By Emily Alvarenga Signal Staff Writer

J

oseph Reyes has been a software developer for more than 50 years now, and he’s good at it.

“They used to call me ‘One-time Joe,’” he said.

In those earlier years, most computer programmers created, edited and stored their programs line by line on punched cards.

“When you’d write a program, sometimes it’d be 50 cards, sometimes it’d be 200 cards, depending on what was needed,” Reyes added. “A lot of guys were trying four, five, six times.”

But “One-time Joe” would almost always get it working right off the bat. “It might not always do what it needed to do, but the logic would work,” he said.

Though his nickname was created with programming in mind, Reyes exemplified it throughout other facets of his life, including when he was drafted into the U.S. Army at 19 years old.

Early life

Reyes was born on June 13, 1947, in the Bronx, though he said he doesn’t remember New York as his family left for Los Angeles when he was just 4.

The moving didn’t end when the family arrived in California, though, and over the course of the next 17 years, they moved nine times, “all right here in the valley, from El Monte to Arleta to Panorama City.”

“I went to two of everything — kindergartens, elementary, junior high and high schools,” Reyes said, laughing.

Though the family never stayed put, Reyes continued trying to make roots wherever he’d go.

Reyes graduated from James Monroe High School

24 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

in 1965, and began classes at Los Angeles Valley College in the fall, studying engineering.

“I was going to full-time work, full-time school and dating a lot, and I couldn’t manage it all,” he said. “‘Well, I’m not going to give up my ladies and I need the money,’” he said, explaining his logic, so he dropped one class, going from 12 to nine units, “and, boom, here comes my letter: ‘You are drafted.’”

Military life

In August 1966, Reyes was sent for two-month basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He was quickly chosen as a squad leader. “It was strange because I was just barely 5-foot-5,” he said.

“So here I am, 5-foot-5 and most of the guys in my squad were all 5-10, 6-1, and I’m bossing them (around).”

After the two months of basic training, they gave him a stripe, and he began his fast track up the ranks.

Because Reyes had taken two typing classes in junior high and had been working at Kaiser Permanente filing paperwork before being drafted, they made him a clerk typist.

He was then sent to Fort Lee, Virginia. Reyes met some friends who had cars, so they were able to take advantage of being on the East Coast, constantly traveling on the weekends.

“One weekend, we’d go to New York; another time, Washington, D.C. — the next time, it’d be Florida,” he said.

While there, Reyes and made two more stripes, including one he received when he was awarded the Soldier of the Month in April 1967, beating out thousands for the honor.

In July 1967, Reyes was sent to Vietnam to the Ninth Infantry Division, 56th Battalion, Third Brigade, where he spent one day over a year, “because it was a leap year, so we had to spend one extra day there.”

“They sent me down to a city called Binh Phuoc.

We were the furthest thing south that represented all of the United States (forces),” he said. “The Viet Cong would come through Cambodia, and they had to go through us because there were rice paddies (everywhere else) and they’d be exposed and in the open. We were hit on every single night because there was only one way to get through.”

When he arrived at camp, he encountered a master sergeant who had been in the Army for about 25 years.

“He saw what (rank) I had and asked how long I’d been in the service, and at that time, I think it was 11 months,” Reyes said. “I told him, ‘I earned every one of them.’ … And here he was already 25 years in, and had, I don’t know, maybe three more stripes than me, so he was really upset with me.”

Most of the soldiers were able to settle in, but the master sergeant sent Reyes out into the field that very afternoon with an M-60 machine gun after learning he was also a sharpshooter.

Reyes, who was only about 120 pounds, told him he had never fired that gun before, but was told he’d learn, and he did.

“I learned quick,” he said, chuckling.

Reyes was given double duties because of his experience as a typist. He would go out in the field and, when he returned, he’d begin the paperwork.

His unit was mechanized, so they’d go out with armored personnel carriers, or APCs. “Since we were mechanized, they would get us in the battle as best they could. They would send us out by helicopter, whatever it’d take to get us out there, so we were in battle quite a bit. We had a ratio that we’d lose one guy and generally kill 12 to our one (loss).”

If one of their men was killed, they would bring his body back to camp, where Reyes then had to search his pockets.

“A lot of guys would get their full month’s pay and they’d just go to the clubhouse and drink beer, but some guys would have two, three months in their pockets, so I had to report everything they had.”

Because of his typing experience, Reyes also had to type the letters that went to the parents after the soldiers had died. “(They were) all hand-typed. If you make a mistake, just tear it and throw it away … I think I broke the record, seven letters with no mistakes in a row.”

Reyes said he saw a lot of soldiers he knew get killed.

“It was a lot of killing and death,” he said. “Unfortunately, I’m the one that had to type the letters and check their bodies.”

One soldier in particular stood out to him, another from Southern California named Scarborough.

The day Scarborough was promoted to captain, he was sent into the field without time to change his promotion chevron.

“You never wear your silver, bronze or gold, just material so it doesn’t shine,” Reyes said. “Well, he just barely got promoted and out they sent him, he never had time to change it, and they got him — Scarborough got killed with a rocket.”

Reyes remembers unloading his body from the APC in the pouring rain.

“What was really hard was that I got back from Vietnam and this song just came out and it was called ‘Scarborough Fair’ — that was his last name. It played on the radio and would just bother the heck out of me.”

Reyes was also in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on various cities and outposts in South Viet-

nam. His unit was asleep with their APCs set up in a 360-degree circle when they heard yelling.

“What the Viet Cong would do is take all these kids from these villages … (and) give them a gun,” he said. “They shouldn’t have been yelling, that’s giving us a sign saying, ‘I’m coming’ … We lost a lot of guys, we lost 12 and I think we killed 69 of them — that’s the biggest loss we ever had.”

Soon, it was time for Reyes to return home, and because he had so little time left in his enlistment, he was honorably discharged in July 1968 as an E-5 specialist second class.

Post-military life

Coming home was strange for him. His friends would ask him why he was so quiet.

“It took me probably a good couple years (to get back to normal),” he said. “The more you talked about it, the better off you were. I was keeping it all in, so the more I started talking about it, releasing it (the better I got).”

He and his wife, Diane, were married a couple of years later, and now, they have four kids and 15 grandkids, all of whom live right here locally.

“They’re always at our house, all the time,” he said.

“We have grandkids over minimum three, four days a week.”

He and his family moved to Santa Clarita in August 1985 to the same house they live in currently.

After he got back, Reyes returned to work at Kaiser, which put him into the mailroom as supervisor, and went back to school full time for computer science.

He was a quick learner and was able to pick up the major computer language that was being used at that time in just a few months, so he transferred into Kaiser’s computer department while continuing school.

Reyes went on to work for various companies after getting his degree, including Price Pfister, Security Pacific Bank, then on his own, which he did for 17 years.

“The very first day I opened my door, I got a job writing a system for a check cashier.”

He made sure to remain owner of the system, and by the time he had it running, he had more than 300 customers using it, including in Canada. He was then able to take the core of it and write various other packages for other areas, such as medical, video and bookkeeping.

“I had a suite in the industrial area off of (Avenue)

Reyes (right) receives a Soldier of the Month plaque in April 1967.

Stanford, and here comes Windows for Microsoft,” he said. “I was already popping up windows like Microsoft did — a lot of developers didn’t know how to do that — still, slowly but surely I was losing customers.”

That’s when he decided to take a position with Tacori Enterprises, where he still works now and hopes to continue working for the next few years.

Present day

Reyes remains “One-time Joe,” always working to do things the right way. He takes the train to work and remains very active, averaging about 4 miles of walking a day.

“Before I go in (to the office), I walk around for a mile and a half, 2 miles, then I go to lunch and I walk to restaurants, which are a 20-minute walk each way,” he said.

Three times a week, he also goes to a personal trainer who’s certified in acupuncture and massage.

“I’m trying to keep myself young because of the grandkids.”

And though he didn’t choose to join the Army, Reyes believes it was an important part of his life.

“I got my life going with my wife and my kids (because of it),” he said.

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 25

Kathy Ellis U.S. Army Reserve

Post-Vietnam to Iraq War-Era Stevenson Ranch Resident

By Emily Alvarenga Signal Staff Writer

K

athy Ellis describes retiring from the U.S. Army Reserve as a bride would describe her post-wedding.

“I put away my uniform like a bride puts away her wedding dress,” Ellis said. “I actually went to the cleaners and said, ‘I want to preserve my Army uniform.’” After 30 years of service, Ellis wanted it boxed up as a rememberance.

Early life

Ellis was born Aug. 11, 1948, to Sophie and Adam Kerko in Buffalo, New York.

Both of her parents were first-generation immigrants who spoke Polish, yet she and her siblings weren’t taught that because, “Back then, you forgot everything about where you came from.”

Her parents grew up “dirt poor,” and they had to drop out of school early on.

“It was real poverty,” she said. “We didn’t have much money, either; but I never thought we were poor.”

Ellis was the youngest of four and, while she said she was probably the “brattiest” and the “most spoiled,” her mother often called her the “black sheep.”

“Growing up, I just had a different outlook on life,” she said. “I was always challenging, always questioning.”

26 · A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal

Ellis spent her teen years challenging herself, determined not to go to public high school and, instead, go to a private Catholic school.

Because her family couldn’t afford it, her mother arranged for her to clean classrooms to pay for half of her tuition, but Ellis was a natural-born leader and convinced her friends to help her.

The nuns were patient with Ellis, and although she often got into trouble, she attributes her success to them.

“They encouraged us that we all didn’t have to be homemakers, which was a different perspective at that time,” she said. “They told us everything was possible.”

When she graduated, Ellis wanted to go to college, but “back then, the boys were educated — the girls were not.”

But, that didn’t stop her. After taking a year off to raise enough money to buy a car, Ellis began medical assistant classes at Erie Technical Institute.

Her drive didn’t stop there. A few years later, she decided to double-major in political science and history at the University at Buffalo.

She wanted to be a lawyer, and even took the law school aptitude test before her mother died in 1977, leaving Ellis with some money.

Ellis had lived with her parents until she was 27, so she decided to use the money to purchase a condominium.

Her mother had helped her acquire all of her previous loans, and now that she was gone, the bank was telling Ellis she was “borderline.”

It was that financial situation that ultimately led her to the Army Reserve.

Ellis was working as a surgical assistant for a periodontist at the time, and learned about a “civilianacquired skills program” that would allow her to join the Reserve and only have to complete a two-

week boot camp, so she joined on May 20, 1978.

Her commander was able to write a letter to the bank, explaining her additional income, which allowed her to purchase the condo.

Military life

Before she enlisted, her recruiter had told her not to join the dental unit because she would never be able to promote to officer, but she thought “recruiters always lied” and chose not to believe him.

It didn’t take long for Ellis to realize she should’ve listened to him, and a year later transitioned to the civil affairs unit as a truck driver.

During this time, Ellis had quit her full-time job to continue her studies, and was working toward her master’s degree in business administration.

When the Cuban refugee crisis arose in 1980, Ellis had to drop her classes to travel to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, for two weeks to assist in processing the influx of people.

“That’s where you got to see the action, really,” she said. “There were a lot of poor families, infirm, mentally ill.”

When she returned, she continued working toward becoming an officer and worked various jobs in civil affairs, eventually deciding she wanted to become a finance officer.

“I had to learn quickly, and I did,” she said. “I read, I asked questions and I figured it out.”

Ellis was sent to Germany three times throughout the years for two-week exercises with the German army.

On one trip, she was even able to meet the mayor of Cologne, who “was telling me my place was in the home.”

“When you’re an officer, you have to be a diplomat, so you just take it,” Ellis said. “They didn’t have women in their military then, just doctors … but they treated me always with respect.”

Ellis remained a finance officer until 1987, when

her family moved to Ohio for her husband’s work.

Because she wanted to remain in finance, she was sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, for schooling.

“I was pregnant at the time, and they weren’t going to let me finish my advance course because I had to go to the field,” Ellis said.

Although she was able to convince the chaplain and doctor to give approval, the director of the school still didn’t want to allow it.

“Women came across in covered wagons and had babies and went back to work — that was my argument,” she said, chuckling.

She was eventually given the OK, allowing her to graduate and return to the Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio, where she continued as a finance officer.

“It was no longer one drill weekend a month,” she said.

“I was gone a lot. I did a lot of traveling.”

Just a year later, she was asked to become headquarters commandant, which led to a promotion to major in 1989.

“That’s when my lack of training comes through,” Ellis said. “I had never taken formation, never learned how to salute properly.”

A few months later, the Ellis family moved first to Denver, then to Sacramento a year later.

“I always stayed behind to sell the house, make sure the kids finished school and figure things out,” she said. “When I did leave, I remember all the enlisted circling my car and saluting me, and it made me cry. So now we’re in Sacramento and again same thing happens — I don’t have a unit.”

Finding a new position

Every move meant Ellis would have to find a new position to continue receiving enough active “points” to work toward retirement.

“Somebody upstairs was looking out for me because each time I found a unit, it was basically luck,” she said.

Her next position arose as a result of her experience with civil affairs, as it’s considered a special operations division.

“You talk about ‘a man’s world,’ my first briefing at battalion headquarters, I walk in and it’s all guys, and they’re not even looking at me,” she said.

Ellis took on various positions in Sacramento, including acting commander and cultural affairs officer, before finally moving to Stevenson Ranch.

“This is the longest (time we’ve lived in a house),” she said.

It was then that Ellis found an opening for assistant chief of staff, working in Los Angeles at the only Reserve Corps command that supported active duty.

“It’s high-level personnel, now you’re in charge of thousands of soldiers in all these units,” she said.

Ellis became a colonel in 2001 and transitioned from there to comptroller, where she worked to develop $60 million Army budgets.

At the same time, she was sent to the Army War College for a two-year program to acquire a master of science in strategic studies.

“You go in the summer for two weeks, then again the following summer for two weeks, but you’re constantly writing papers on strategy and war — it was very hard,” Ellis said. “But it was an honor.”

Throughout her time in the Reserve, Ellis had taken various part-time civilian jobs, but in 2002, she had also begun a full-time position as an investigator for U.S. Investigation Services, a private company contracted to investigate security clearances. This allowed her to send her son to a Catholic high school.

“They didn’t like the Army, the Army didn’t like the job, and they were constantly clashing with each other,” she said.

Back in 1995, Ellis had told a colonel that she wanted to be the commander, “and someday I will be.” This dream came true in December 2003, when she was chosen as the group commander of the Army Reserve Center in Bell, California.

“There was no sleep anymore — during wartime, you get burnt out,” she said.

For the last five months of her Reserve career, El-

Ellis retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel on Aug. 30, 2008.

lis took a leave of absence from work after she was given active duty orders back to L.A. to take over a full-time chief of staff position until she retired Aug. 30, 2008.

“Long hours, but I didn’t have two jobs anymore, so I could focus,” she said. “That’s how I ended my career … Sept. 1, 2008, I was (a soldier) no more, and it happens just like that. One day, you’re giving orders — the next, you’re gone.”

Throughout her career, Ellis received various awards, including a Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Post-military life

A few years after Ellis retired from USIS in 2013, she decided she wanted to get a culinary degree at College of the Canyons. However, “The Army told me I wasn’t considered a veteran,” she said, and therefore she didn’t qualify for education benefits.

Ellis then had to contact the Department of Defense to prove she had done enough active duty days to be considered a veteran.

“Those are the kind of arguments I had to go through my whole career,” Ellis said.

Regardless of the challenges she faced, not only being a reservist, but also being a woman, Ellis still said, “To me, my first love was the military.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 27

AshleyU.S.Bozeman Navy Afghanistan/Iraq-era Saugus Resident

played a big part in raising her.

At 16, Bozeman already knew she wanted to serve her country, so with the help of her father, who signed the papers, she joined the Navy in the Delayed Entry Program.

Military life

By Emily Alvarenga Signal Staff Writer

A

shley Bozeman is happier when she’s doing things she can truly believe in, whether that means she’s training dogs at Ray’s Hope: Rescue to Rescue, working with the horses at Blue Star Ranch or singing for veterans at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in Long Beach.

That mentality is exactly what led her to join the U.S. Navy, because at 16, she believed in the importance of serving her country.

Early life

Bozeman was born on July 8, 1989, in Covina, California. Her parents split when she was 2 — her mom stayed in California and her dad moved to Kauai to be near his family.

Throughout her childhood, she and her siblings spent the school year with her mom and visited her dad in the summer.

She has always loved horses, and in Kauai, remembers riding Rocky, an old show horse who she considered her own, and Beau.

Bozeman said she had a great childhood, and she’s very blessed to have her family.

“We’re spread apart, but I’m really lucky in a lot of ways to have them,” she added.

She was very close to her grandparents and would walk to their house after school — they

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By the time Bozeman turned 18 and was ready to begin active duty in 2007, she had recruited three others to also join (all of whom are doing well and stayed in the service), and as a result, entered as an E-3 seaman.

She began as a machinist mate on the USS Ronald Reagan, working on the hydraulics on the aircraft elevators, steering units and arresting gear.

“I miss the smell of wire rope grease so much,” she said, laughing. “That was my first job, then I switched to outside repair, which was working on the fire pumps and the vertical package conveyors.”

On her first deployment, Bozeman was in honor guard, a group that typically does a ceremonial drill and presentation of the colors, and remembers performing for another country at port as they played the “Top Gun Anthem.” “I’ll never forget that,” she said, smiling.

The USS Ronald Reagan’s motto was “Peace through Strength,” so they were always volunteering for deployments and different trips. As a result, Bozeman ended up going to various places, such as Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Dubai and Bahrain, but one deployment still sticks out.

In the last year of her enlistment, Bozeman transferred to security on temporary-assigned duty, and it was around the same time that her ship was sent on a deployment to Korea.

On March 11, 2011, Japan was devastated by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster — the most significant nuclear incident since Chernobyl.

Following the accident, the USS Ronald Reagan moved to the east coast of Honshu. They ended up being in the first response to Operation Tomodachi, the U.S. Armed Forces assistance operation to support Japan in disaster relief.

The ship served as a refueling platform for Japan’s helicopters that were transporting their troops to disaster areas. They also served their own helicopters that helped to ferry over tons of food, water, blankets, clothing and medical supplies for distribution in Japan.

It was snowing at that time, and Bozeman remembers how cold it was as they were anchored near the coast.

“We were helo-ing over supplies, and we looked out at the water, it looked like you could walk to the land — anything and everything you could think of was floating out there,” she said.

The sailors were also sending their own supplies, and Bozeman said she brought out a bunch of socks, thinking of the movie “Forrest Gump” and how Lt. Dan stressed the importance of keeping the soldier’s socks clean.

“I’m still really proud of this deployment, even though it changed everything,” she said.

The ship remained in the area for about a month before they were relieved and the Reagan continued on its original course. When it reached Guam, Bozeman was flown back as her enlistment was near its end. She was honorably discharged on Sept. 11, 2011.

Post-military life

Bozeman had a rough time readjusting when she first returned home, and it took her a few years to find her way.

Eventually, she moved back home to Covina to help her family and her grandmother, who was ill.

She then began taking classes at Citrus College, working toward her associate’s degree in math, biology and physical science.

It was when she was working at the Veterans Success Center at Citrus College as a veteran mentor when everything began to fall into place, because that was where she met U.S. Air Force veteran Julie Hollowell, who led her to Ray’s Hope: Rescue to Rescue, a nonprofit that provides veterans in need with critical resources to help them get back on their feet.

Last year, Bozeman moved to Santa Clarita to be a part of Ray’s Hope — which pairs veterans with rescue dogs — as she knew she could really help out, and she said it’s been rewarding working with the dogs.

“It’s really awesome to see that change and see that spark (in them),” she said.

Ray’s Hope sent her to Blue Star Ranch, which

Left: Bozeman visits a port in Canada during her time in the Navy.

She traveled to many places while serving aboard ship, including Thailand, Japan, Bahrain, Malaysia and Dubai. Top: Bozeman served in the honor guard on her first deployment, performing ceremonial drills and presenting the colors.

PHOTOS COURTESY JUAN ORTIZ

provides equine therapy for veterans.

“I tried to go through therapy at the VA, and nothing would ever work,” Bozeman said. “But, honestly, having both of those, it really hit home for me and helped me in so many different ways.”

Present day

Now, Bozeman volunteers at the ranch, and said founder Nancy Zhe is teaching her a lot. Together they’re trying to get equine therapy approved by the VA, and Bozeman has spoken to Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte, about this while on a panel of female veterans.

She is still working with Ray’s Hope and hopes to one day open her own branch of the organization.

“I felt so lucky to have come here, and I love this town,” she said.

She said she especially loves the local expressions of patriotism, how the flags that run along various roads and bridges are lit up at night, adding, “It gives you chills.”

Bozeman wears many different hats, and is constantly running around to the various organiza-

Mariah, a mustang, nuzzles U.S. Navy veteran Ashley Bozeman in the arena at Blue Star Ranch in Saugus.

PHOTO BY DAN WATSON / THE SIGNAL

tions she’s become a part of, but she said that’s what makes her happy.

She believes Ray’s Hope and Blue Star Ranch are a “winning combination, and they’re just getting started.”

She has also begun singing with Welcome Home, a band that typically plays at the VA in Long Beach, after meeting band member and a Vietnam veteran named Hector.

“I was this big chicken about singing — I wouldn’t even really sing in front of my family,” she said. “Going in there and playing with them, to see the smiles on (the veterans’) faces and just changing people’s days for the better — that’s what helps me, too.”

Just two weeks ago, Bozeman finished school, graduating with her associate’s degree. And though her grandmother has emphysema with only 20% function of one lung, she still made it out to Bozeman’s graduation.

Bozeman still has a lot of dreams to help her fellow veterans, including helping to bring more VA services to Hawaii, furthering equine therapy as an option for veterans at the VA and opening a Ray’s Hope training facility for veterans.

She also plans to continue in school and, hopefully, move out to Kauai to be with her dad.

“I just want to spend some time with him.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 29

Anthony Gayden U.S. Army Gulf War and Iraq Canyon Country Resident

Early life

By Emily Alvarenga Signal Staff Writer

W

hen Anthony Gayden was a private in the U.S. Army, he had an officer who he hated — at first. “He was so mean, and he made me work so hard,” Gayden said.

The first time Gayden had to put on all of the protective gear used during nuclear, biological and chemical warfare training, he couldn’t breath in the mask and told his officer.

“He was calm. He said, ‘Gayden don’t take that mask off,’” Gayden said. “I’m thinking I’m tough, thinking, ‘I’m going to take this mask off, I told him I can’t breath.’”

As soon as Gayden took the mask off, the officer punched him in the throat, hard, and said, “Now you can’t breath.”

“After that, whatever he told me, I did it,” Gayden said.

It wasn’t until a deployment to Desert Storm, when the chemical alarms went off for the first time, that he realized the importance of this lesson.

“I’m seeing people running around screaming, ‘Ah, I can’t find my mask,’ and I thought to myself, ‘I’m so glad that he’s my leader,’ because we were ready … we got into (our gear) so quick,” Gayden said. “And from that day forward, I patterned myself after him.”

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Gayden was born on July 21, 1969 in Flint, Michigan. He was the youngest of two, so he was his mother’s baby.

Though he and his sister were raised solely by their mother, the family had deep roots in Flint and they grew up very close to their extended family.

“My grandparents had six kids, so I grew up with all of them and their children — we were all tight,” Gayden said.

Gayden’s father lived in Detroit, and wasn’t around very much through his childhood, but he still had strong men in his life — his grandfather and uncles.

Nearly all of his family worked for General Motors, including his mother, who was a general foreman at the company for 37 years.

“She was a strong woman,” Gayden said. “My mother worked hard, and she raised us off of General Motors. A lot of people in my community grew up on the poor side … but my refrigerator was always full. We weren’t well off, but we didn’t know it.”

Gayden’s family had a strong work ethic, which was passed down from his grandfather to his mother, and then to him.

“My grandfather had nothing more than a sixth-grade education, but he raised six kids and umpteen grandkids,” he said.

In high school, Gayden was very into sports, wrestling and playing football through the years.

“I always thought I was going to be on a professional football team somewhere,” he said. “I didn’t have the mentality of future planning.

I was just taking it day by day, and the next thing I knew, it was my senior year and I hadn’t taken any

SATs, I hadn’t planned anything.”

Though he didn’t know what he was going to do, he did know what he was certainly not going to do — “sit around and do nothing” — so he started looking into the military.

Gayden first went in to a Marine Corps recruiter, but still wasn’t quite sold on which branch he was going to pick.

He then decided on the Army, and scored high on the aptitude test, so he got his choice of jobs and decided to become an avionics electrician.

After graduation from Flint Northern High School in June, Gayden took the summer off before leaving for basic training.

Military life

Gayden arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on Aug. 18, 1988, for his first day of basic training, feeling petrified.

“I was always a loud kid. I ran my mouth all of the time,” he said, “so before I left, my uncle said to me, ‘Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to, keep your head down, and just do what you’re told,’ but no, not me. I went in there the same old me.”

“They smoked me from day one all the way until the eighth week,” he said, laughing. “But I made it through, and I had a great time.”

After nine months of advanced individual training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, he was worried they were going to send him overseas, but was excited to hear he was going to Fort Hood, Texas, instead. He only stayed there for a year though, as he was put on a unit training plan, where the whole unit trains for a year, then ships somewhere together.

“We were wartime training,” he said. “That training program was rigorous. We would go to the field for two weeks, come back for four, go back for another three weeks, come back for two, go back for another — a year straight.”

He’d already learned the skills, so he was fixing aircraft now, which he loved. The first was the Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter, then the Boeing AH-64 Apache.

“We’re not aircraft-specific, so we could work on any of the aircraft,” he said.

His unit was then sent to Ansbach, Germany, for three years.

“I was there for about six months, then got alerted to go to Desert Storm, and off I went,” he said.

During the six-month deployment, he was part of an attack helicopter battalion, and worked on the unit’s 18 Apaches, 12 Bell OH-58 Kiowa and three Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks.

He then returned to Germany, where he was able to play for the World League of American Football.

“It helped boost German-American relations, so the units were really supportive and they encouraged me to go play,” Gayden said. “I would travel all over Europe playing football, and when I wasn’t playing football, I was on the community wrestling team. That was great — that’s why I loved Germany so much.”

After his tour, he was transferred to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for three years before being sent on a hardship tour to Korea for a year. When he returned, he then left for Oahu, where he worked with a Black Hawks unit for four years until transferring back to Fort Campbell.

“I loved all my overseas assignments, but my favorite stateside assignment was Fort Campbell,” he said. “I was a soldier’s soldier, and if you’re a soldier, Fort Campbell was the place to be. I was motivated, I was physically fit, I was smart.”

Soon, Gayden was deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom for a year, where he again was put into an attack helicopter battalion.

“The aircraft would fly to wherever they were going, but whenever we would go to our forward location, we had to get in our trucks — that’s where we saw the action,” he said. “You’ll never forget the guys you were over there with … It’s a bond that I can’t explain.”

After Desert Storm, he had vowed he would be the

kind of leader who gave his soldiers what they needed, not what they wanted, and as a platoon sergeant while deployed, he was able to put that into practice.

“I had 67 soldiers in my platoon and 67 soldiers came home with me because my soldiers were not going to be ill-prepared,” he said.

Though those deployments were challenging, Gayden said they were rewarding — “I’m proud I did it,” he added.

In 2007, Gayden went back to Korea, where he spent the last four years of his military service. By that time he was first sergeant, and a leader no one wanted to mess with.

“That was the first time I thought, ‘Man, I’m good at this,’” he said. “That was, to me, what I was best at.”

He remembers talking with a spouse who was upset her husband was working so hard.

He told her, “It’s not my job to try and make you happy … my job is to bring your husband home to you. When we go across those waters, you can’t fathom the hardships that we have to endure, and everything I’m doing right now is preparing him, so that he can come home to you.”

He was able to see it come full circle, and was later told the impact he had on his soldiers.

“That was a beautiful thing,” he said.

Gayden retired on June 1, 2011, as a first sergeant, after 23 years in the U.S. Army.

Post-military life

“I hadn’t been without a job since I was 12 years old, so it was such a foreign feeling for me when I retired,” Gayden said. “In that in-between time from when I retired to when I re-entered the workforce, it was really scary.”

Gayden said he must’ve washed all the paint off his car.

“My wife would get up in the morning and go to work, and I would go outside and wash the car,” he said, chuckling.

A couple years after retirement, Gayden and his family moved to Santa Clarita, and about six months later, he was hired by the federal government as director of mission support operations for a defense contract management agency, working out of Palmdale.

“That’s where I’ve been ever since, and I love it,” he said, smiling.

Reflecting

The first time Gayden was really able to reflect and

A couple years after retirement, Gayden and his family moved to Santa Clarita.

realize what he had lost by leaving the military was on a beach camping trip to Camp Pendleton with his family when he passed another serviceman while walking to the commissary.

“We made eye contact, and it was a feeling that I can’t explain, like, ‘I got your back,’” he said. “With all of the race craziness, strife and hatred in America today, it almost made me cry.”

“We have an understanding between the service men and women that when we cross those waters in a hostile environment, when we know they want to kill us because of the U.S. Army written across our chests, we’re all we’ve got,” he said. “If I’m in a foxhole next to you, I’m not worried about where you’re from, what your religion is, what your sexual preference is — all I’m worried about is if you’ve got my back and I’ve got yours.”

He explained this feeling as a bond that can never be broken.

“I wish that the other 99% of America could feel what we feel, so all of this hatred and separation could go away,” he added. “Just because somebody is different, doesn’t make them beneath you or above you. Let’s get to know each other’s differences, understand each other and see where it goes from there.”

A TRIBUTE TO VETERANS 2019 • The Signal 31

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