Remembering some friends, Nov. 11, 2020

At this time of year, it is good to remember friends and neighbors who served our nation. So take some time to refresh your memory of these neighbors and the many more not named here.

Let’s start with those from 1940 first. Remember Hedi Roripaugh? She joined the Women’s’ Army Corps in 1940 and served in the European theater after D-day in 1944. How about Wil Smythe, aircrewman in Torpedo Squadron 10, flying TBMs from two different carriers and participating in several naval battles.

Harry Davies joined the Navy in 1943; he got the Silver Star for minesweeping operations in Wonsan Harbor in the Korean War. He later commanded two vessels and several shore stations. You can’t forget the tall Gordon Raver, another carrier sailor, who directed aircraft movement on the flight deck of the Bunker Hill.

Then there’s Bernie Thompson who was an Air Corps bombardier aboard B17s in the last years of World War II and who later achieved designation as pilot and flew bombers in the Strategic Air Command in the Korean War years. He had an interval between bombardier and pilot in which he returned to university under the GI Bill.

If you volunteered at the Fallbrook Hospital, you’ll remember the always friendly Ned Daily. He survived the withdrawal of the freezing Marines from the Chosin Reservoir. You can’t forget the U.S. Air Force recruiting poster and the man in it was Will Gordon, who went on to fly F86s. In later years, he was very active in the Civil Air Patrol, including Fallbrook’s own 87 Squadron.

In 1953, Jack Dunckel flew Skyraiders off the deck of the Boxer in missions over North Korea as a member of VF-194 in the Korean War the Cold War commenced in 1947and lasted to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989.

Enter David Obuhanych, Marine, linguist and spy. In 1965, he was detailed to a Military Liaison Mission in Soviet-controlled East Germany and was informed by letter of his promotion to Major there. He, his wife Jane and their two children, Ellen and Michael, lived in Potsdam. After this and another MLM, he continued on a more conventional Marine career, went to Vietnam in 1968 and returned to the First Marine Division, retiring in 1985. There are amazing heroes among us; you should get to know them and their legends.

John Watson